


House of Secrets

by Sinbastiao



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Anxiety, Death, F/M, I think there's no more?, Kidnapping, M/M, Nudity, Oh welp i will add more if needed, OiSuga Past Friends with Benefits, Past Attempted Murder, Past Attempted Suicide, Psychological Horror, Self-Mutilation, Stalking, Violence, lewd jokes, traumatic backgrounds
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:42:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 24,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21825367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinbastiao/pseuds/Sinbastiao
Summary: A stream started at the dark web. A house under vigilance during all day, all night. There's cameras and microphones hidden in every room. Everything is uncovered except the mysteries yet to be revealed.A game is about to start. The Voice is ready to give orders. The participants were chosen because of their dark secrets that they don't want to reveal. The others, however, have to find out which secret belong to whom.But it's the audience that decide who to save and who to eliminate.Yes, eliminate.It's you who have the power of deciding their fates.Are you ready to play as God?
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Daishou Suguru/Yamaka Mika, Haiba Lev/Yaku Morisuke, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Miya Atsumu & Miya Osamu, Oikawa Tooru/Sugawara Koushi
Comments: 25
Kudos: 121





	1. The House of Secrets welcomes you

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, hi! How are you doing? õ/
> 
> This is actually an interactive fanfic on Twitter, based on Kuromantic's interactive au! It's still going on, but I felt that it was hard for some people to read in Twitter, so I separated what I got until now and I will be posting here. >:3
> 
> I will post periodically, but if you can't wait, you can read it on Twitter. I will leave the link at the end. 
> 
> Alas, I wrote this before of the timeskip, so yeah... Not accurate with that, but whatever
> 
> For now, have a good reading! >;3

There was someone whispering Hinata's name. It was a muffled sound, almost a murmur of a past memory. A memory that must have been hidden and should never again be unearthed from the bottom of his mind.

_"Hey, Hinata-kun, what do you think-"_

Hinata opened his eyes aptrutically and tried to sit up, but hit his head with someone as he did so. He grunted in pain; the other one did too. He was ready to apologize to Natsu, but as soon as he opened his eyes again, he realized that he wasn't in his room, nor was it Natsu he bumped into.

"Lev?"

"Ah… The pain..." Lev muttered under his breath as he patted his nose.

"I warned you to not to be so close, idiot," Yaku punched Lev weakly in the head. "Are you okay, Shor- Hinata?"

"Were you going to call me 'Shorty'?" Hinata narrowed his eyes at Yaku, who looked away as he muttered a not very convincing ‘no’. "I'm fine, but where are we?"

Hinata looked around. This room was large, with four double beds with white covers and a huge closet. There were no windows to the outside, but there was a large one for the other room. _There’s no privacy_ , he thought. He forced his memory to try to find out when he'd stopped there.

"We don't know," Yaku replied. "We all woke up a little while ago."

Hinata got out of bed and noticed that he was wearing pajamas. Yaku was wearing an orange cat onesie, while Lev was wearing a tracksuit; the pants were red, while the jacket was white with the collar and the upper half was red, as was the "RU" at the front.

"Damn, you've grown up since the last time I saw you," Yaku commented as Hinata was taller than he was. He didn't want to believe he was the shortest.

"Ah, I grew up-"

"Don't say it! I don't want to hear it!"

3 years had passed since the last time he had seen Yaku. Now they were all college students, and if this were a normal meeting, they would have a lot to talk about. But this wasn’t a normal meeting.

"Yaku-san didn't grow at all," Lev commented and took a kick in the hip. "That hurts!"

Yaku simply hissed in response. Hinata was going to ask if anyone else was there, but the answer came in the voice of Oikawa, who was in a room next door.

"Ei-chan, you're a crime against humanity! What clothes are these?!"

"I don't want to hear that from someone in pajamas with aliens," Eita snapped immediately, without thinking twice.

"Oh, the boldness!"

"Shittykawa, shut up at once."

Hinata walked into the living room, curious about the chaos that was going on there. In fact, Oikawa was wearing pajamas with aliens and Eita was wearing old clothes that looked bad together, probably for home use. Iwaizumi, meanwhile, was only wearing a white t-shirt and boxers. Hinata looked away.

"Ah… Shouyou, you're up," Kenma said, huddled on one of the three large white sofas in that room. Everything was big in this house, it seemed. At the end of the sofa were Tsukishima and Sugawara, while on the couch in front were Miya twins and Daishou, who waved at Hinata with such a smile in his face.

"Did you sleep well, Sleeping Beauty?" Tsukishima asked, in a mocking tone. "You were the last one to wake up."

Hinata was surprised. He always woke up early. _Hm? What was I dreaming?_ He wondered, but as he forced his memory he felt a headache. He wasn’t supposed to remember.

"Are you alright, Hinata?" Sugawara got up and approached him.

"Ah yes..."

"Oh, are we all awake?" Bokuto asked as he emerged from the stairs leading downstairs. Akaashi was behind him. Hinata looked away from them immediately. _Oh my God, what marks are those on Akaashi-san's legs?!_

"For God's sake, how about you wear something?" Yaku roared. "There are clothes in the closets, you don't have to walk around half-naked!"

Tsukishima nodded. Never in his life he thought of waking up next to Akaashi and seeing him only in his shirt and boxers. He even fell from the bed below, but no one saw. And no one needed to know that.

"What is the problem? It's not like it's the first time we've seen each others naked," Bokuto commented.

"It's the first time I've seen Akaacchi's legs like this, Kou-chan~" Oikawa smiled teasingly. "Are you really sure you want us to see that?"

Bokuto looked back at his boyfriend and exclaimed his name as he started to take off his pants to give him, but was stopped by Akaashi. Before he could say anything, a sharp sound caught their attention.

"Welcome to the House of Secrets," an unknown, robotic voice spoke out of nowhere, startling Hinata and Kenma, who was already uneasy about the absence of his cell phone and his PSP. "I am your Host, _The Voice_ , and I will be the referee of this game."

"A game?" Bokuto asked excitedly.

"Yes, a very fun game," The Voice continued. "I will explain the rules. Each of you has a secret that you don't want to reveal to anyone," everyone tensed to hear that. It couldn't be… "They are scattered around the house and it is your mission to find out who they belong to. Take your time, a hasty choice to end your elimination. Telling your secret will also end in elimination."

"What do you mean, 'elimination?'" Eita asked, swallowing hard.

"It’s what it sounds, Semi Eita," he shivered. Of course, if The Voice knew his secret, so would the name. "Being eliminated means being killed, but don't worry, maybe you can be saved by the audience."

The television turned on and showed a stream on the dark web. It was them. They were on live. And there were a lot of people watching and commenting. Akaashi instinctively searched the camera and hid behind Bokuto.

**_Look at those legs~!_ **

**_Iwa-chan, show us more.~~~_ **

**_IHJFIODSHDASDUH BOKUTO (?? Is that his name???) HUG ME!_ **

**_Hehe, these guys are all handsome!_ **

Eita took off his sweater, having now only a t-shirt that was under, and wrapped it around Iwaizumi's waist, much to Oikawa's and his surprise. This caused comments about Eita in the stream chat, but he didn’t care. Seeing this, Lev took off his coat and went to hand it to Akaashi.

"There are several hidden cameras as well as microphones. You have been under surveillance from the moment we brought you here and will continue until the game is over. "

"And when will the game end?" Daishou asked. He didn't like that. He lived with Mika and just thinking he was kidnapped at night… He hated to think about it, but something could have happened to his girlfriend.

"When the audience wants it. Your goal is to gain the affection of the audience and to be saved, maybe everyone will be able to come out alive, but for that they will have to comply with our orders, "The Voice paused, as if thinking of something. Daishou had a bad feeling. "Ah, maybe I should say… There are more players. But they are still sleeping and they won't wake up anytime soon."

Daishou widened his eyes and got up from the couch. No. It couldn’t be.

"Where is Mika?!"

"This is all for now."

"Hey! Answer me!"

Silence. The Voice no longer answered. _Fuck_ , Daishou thought as he punched the table, _I don't care what happens to me, but if they do something to Mika...!_

"Hm... Maybe we should look for those secrets?" Osamu broke the silence; he, and no one, knew what to say to Daishou.

Daishou, on the other hand, knew very well that there was nothing to be said.

"Yeah…"

"You better listen to my advice and wear something," Yaku said and looked at Lev. "Help me change my clothes, I don't want any cameras to catch me."

"Okay!"

"Oh, don't worry, Mori-chan, no one will judge you for being dressed like a cat," teased Oikawa. "You look like a child after all!"

"Opa, first, 'Mori-chan' is your ass!" Yaku replied, ready to fight if necessary. "Second, this onesie was a gift from Kuroo and it's very comfortable. Third-"

"Was it Kuroo that gave you?" Kenma asked, approaching his former teammates. He was too nervous to be alone and talking would make him stop thinking about this situation.

"Yeah, didn't you know?" Yaku asked, completely ignoring the existence of Oikawa, who got outraged and went to change his clothes. "I thought he told you everything."

"No..."

"Ah, Kenma-san..."

Lev noticed in Kenma's anxiety, he was almost shivering – moments like those that showed just how important Kuroo was to Kenma, since the other's presence already helped Kenma. Lev reached into his pockets and pulled out two fidgets, promptly handing them to Kenma, who looked confused at them. _Why does he have this?_

But Kenma couldn't ask. Lev pulled Yaku into the room, wondering if there was any clothing that fit – the only answer he received was a kick in the ass.

"Ah," Atsumu muttered and motioned for Osamu to approach; there was a smile on his face. In his hands was a small, empty vase – or rather, it was now empty, because there was a paper in it. "I found a secret!"

"Let's put them all on the table and read them all together," Osamu suggested.

"Gotcha."

While changing clothes, Oikawa remembered something. _Fuck Fuck, fuck, fuck..._ He finished dressing in a hurry and ran to the bathroom. _Where's the damn camera?!,_ he started searching the corners, but nothing. _I don't want strangers to see me here-_

"What are you looking for?"

Oikawa was startled by Iwaizumi's sudden appearance, who looked at the other wondering what he was doing.

"Iwa-chan! Don't scare me like that!" He asked as he looked between the toiletries. "I’m seeing if I can find any cameras-"

"It's behind the door, idiot," Iwaizumi noted, by looking at the door.

A bottle of shampoo fell into the shower. Ah. An obvious place that Oikawa didn't even look at.

"Great eye, Iwa-chan!"

“Why do you want the camera?”

“To break it, of course!”

Iwaizumi took the camera behind the door. He could understand Oikawa's eagerness to destroy the device. It wasn’t pleasant to be under surveillance, especially in the bathroom.

"You've come to the bathroom before, haven't you?" Iwaizumi asked, making Oikawa roll his eyes.

"You know the answer!"

Oikawa took the device from Iwaizumi's hands. It was small and seemed to have a microphone attached.

“Look at the sewers, dear spectators!~”

He tossed it into the toilet and flushed the toilet. Almost immediately, a sharp sound was heard through the mansion. _Fuck_.

"This is The Voice," the damn voice said. Oikawa cursed again in his head. “We ask you not to break our devices again or the responsible person could suffer the consequences. This is all for now."

Oikawa flushed the toilet again to make sure the chamber was gone. _I hate hidden cams_.

"Oi, enough, Oikawa," Iwaizumi warned, and grabbed his t-shirt, pulling him out of the bathroom.

"Hey, Iwa-chan!"

“Was it you who broke the camera?” Sugawara asked. Oikawa managed to break free.

"This idiot, yes."

“Ugh… was there one in the bathroom?” This time, it was Hinata who asked. He thanked for not being there yet, though his stomach felt weird.

"Oh, do you wanna throw up like the old days?" Tsukishima teased again.

If he could, Hinata would shoot with his glare at him.

“Don't even try to argue,” Sugawara warned. “I would suggest we cover the cameras, but I don't think the Voice would like it…”

"And we don't even know what kind of consequence we would have," Yaku commented, coming back from the room with a paper in his hand. "I found a secret."

"Put it on the table."

It took several minutes before all the papers with the secrets were discovered.

  
  


**_I almost got killed_ **

**_I did blackmail_ **

**_I have a microchip inside of me_ **

**_I helped killing my father_ **

**_I killed in self-defense_ **

**_I’m a stalker_ **

**_I’m kleptomaniac_ **

**_I sent death threats_ **

**_I took inappropriate photos of others without permission_ **

**_I tried to kill myself_ **

**_I tried to kill someone_ **

**_I was bullied_ **

**_I was kidnapped when I was younger_ **

**_I witnessed a homicide_ **

"Oh my God," Sugawara began, not believing what he was seeing. “We need a therapist. The weaker would be, what, the kleptomania?

“How… how did they found this out?” Daishou asked. "I mean, there are secrets here that wouldn't be public knowledge, right?"

"I assume most of these secrets happened before high school, or we would have heard rumors," Eita assumed. “Newspapers don't say the names of minors.”

Oikawa was looking at the secrets. There were people with blood on their hands and a stalker _–_ he definitely wanted to avoid being their new target. He looked at Iwaizumi; to know that one of those secrets belonged to him and he knew nothing... _Well, it's not like he knows my secret – and, well, I hope no one finds out._

"How the fuck I don't know ya secret, Samu?"

"I can ask ya the same damn question, Tsumu," Osamu said, without looking at him. _Well, ya do know my secret, ya just forgot about it…_

"Haha!" Bokuto laughed. "So the twins don’t know each other that well?"

"Shut up," they said in chorus.

"And how well do you know your boyfriend, Kou-chan?~" Oikawa asked, with his usual smile.

Bokuto was quiet, watching closely Akaashi who was quickly embarrassed. Bokuto was going to say something weird and he knew it.

"Maybe he's kleptomaniac because he stole my heart!"

"Oh my God."

"There’s a room right there," Tsukishima warned.

Suddenly Oikawa felt two blows to the head.

"Iwa-chan?! Mr. Refreshing?!"

"I have a name," Sugawara warned, hitting Oikawa again, this time lightly.

"Don't ask unnecessary questions."

"Well! What questions can I ask?" Oikawa asked, exalted, approaching Iwaizumi's face. He moved a little. "We can't reveal our secrets, or give clues. Even if we could I doubt very much that we're comfortable revealing them in live. We were all sleeping when we were kidnapped, so we didn't see the faces-"

"Ah, I saw them!"

Everyone looked at Lev, surprised by the intervention.

"W-What?!" Yaku exclaimed. "Why didn't you say that before?!"

"I forgot?!"

"Ah," Eita said. "I did see them too? I mean, it was too fast. They basically stuck a cloth with chloroform in my face as soon as I opened the door."

"How did ya survive so far?" Atsumu asked. "Ya opened the door to a kidnapper!"

"I don't want to hear that from someone who was kidnapped too!" He answered. "I was pulling out another all-night to finish a damn report, I bet deep down I even wished it was a serial killer!"

Everyone understood that feeling. The hell of university reports and the damn deadlines that left everyone wanting for death.

"I hope the teacher accepts the justification that we were kidnapped," Atsumu commented to Osamu, who just shook his head.

"Lev, what do you remember?"

“Hm… I was cleaning up the rink with the headphones on and two men approached me without I noticed. One of them had scars on his face and-” Lev felt his blood freeze. “Ah, I hit him with the roller blade…? I think it bled… The rest is confusing, but I'm sure I never saw them before.”

Lev was well aware that the images had been taken by the surveillance camera, but he was afraid they had destroyed them. He thanked his family was out of the country, but… _Oh, I don't want to worry them…_

"And you? Did they hurt you?” Yaku asked, his eyes full of concern. Lev smiled.

"Only you hit me!"

“Why you…!”

The sound they hated so much made itself heard. Kenma squeezed one of the fidgets Lev lent him into his pocket so as not to draw too much attention.

"This is the Voice," they announced. "Let's play a little game."

"A _little_ game?" Daishou repeated scornfully.

“See the door that is locked?”

At one end of the room was a locked door. Tsukishima had tried to open it before, but failed. There were also some spiral stairs in the room where he woke up that overlooked the upstairs, but the door wouldn't open. _The Voice must be in this mansion… And there must be traps out there._

“You will separate in pairs and look for the key. The pair who finds it will receive a reward. This is all for now."

"Seriously? No further explanation?” Hinata asked, frustrated.

"What reward will that be?" Daishou asked. “I swear if it's related to the other players…!”

"If so, we have to decide the pairs fast," Sugawara said, serious, until he smiled awkwardly. "Although I would say there are pairs already formed..."

"Kenma, would you like to stay with me?" Hinata asked, and Kenma muttered a "yes". He already imagined that Lev and Yaku would stay together anyway.

"So, Daishou and I will be in the same pair," Eita said.

"And Tsukishima with me!~"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you enjoy it? I hope so!
> 
> I want to thank everyone that motivated me while I was writing this, and also that special person that helped me with ideas <3 I will reveal who are they in the end >:3 I love ya!
> 
> This chapter starts at part 1 and ends at part 11! >:3  
> The question that was made in this chapter:  
> \- "who will break the camera?" -> Oikawa was the most voted between him and Iwaizumi.
> 
> You can find the fanfic here: https://twitter.com/Sinbastiao/status/1165977087985037312
> 
> Please, feel free to send comments here or quote the tweets! Share your theories about which secret belongs to whom!


	2. May the games begin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, hi! I'm here to bring you a new chapter!
> 
> Thank you all that had left kudos! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter!
> 
> A reminder that this is an interactive AU in Twitter! Hopefully I will update very soon there, with some polls >:3
> 
> Either way, have a nice reading!

There was a library downstairs. Again, no window in that room.

Tsukishima really didn't understand how a windowless house project could be approved.  _ Corrupt money? _

He looked at the books. They were a lot; they would be disgraced if the key was inside one of them. Tsukishima tried to look for a strange or empty spine, after all, most likely the key was in a fake book.

But even so, it would take too long.

"Suga-" Tsukishima was calling to the other, but saw him staring at the chandelier. "Sugawara-san?"

"Oh, sorry, I was thinking about the value of this house because everything seems expensive," he replied, placing his hand on his chin. "The rest of the mansion follows a modern style, but the library follows an exaggerated luxurious style."

"Ah yes, you are taking interior design," Tsukishima muttered.

"At least I noticed that there are false walls," Sugawara replied.

"What?!"

Sugawara nodded and approached a bookshelf attached to the wall.

"Look at the wall behind this bookcase. It has cracks too straight to be mere cracks."

"How did you notice that…?"

"One of my colleagues loves this kind of thing and decided that I was the best person to influence…" he bent down and looked into the back of the bookcase. "I think it's slightly elevated… I think it's a door, like one that rotates?"

That said, he tried to push the bookshelf, but nothing. Sugawara made a sound of displeasure.

"There must be some mechanism," Tsukishima concluded. Again, he searched for some untitled spine, but nothing that caught his eye. "Or maybe just works for the other side?"

"I want to have a fight against the architect," Sugawara commented, making Tsukishima roll his eyes. "Anyway, I'd already looked around when I was looking for secrets and didn't notice any keys."

"Let's just have another look."

And so they did until they heard someone exclaim that they found the key. As soon as they left the library, Sugawara looked back at the chandelier. It was very bright and attracted his eye.  _ Oh, it's like Daichi once said: crows like shiny things. _

***

After everyone left the living room, Bokuto and Akaashi stayed there. Akaashi wondered why no one had found the key while searching for the secrets. Sugawara had commented something about fake walls in the library when he came back with a secret in hand…  _ The Voice must be behind the walls, huh… _

Akaashi looked at the locked door. Besides of it, there was also a trapdoor on the ceiling in the bedroom he woke up in, and another in the kitchen downstairs, tucked under a rug.  _ This mansion only screams secret rooms… _

Suddenly he became aware that Bokuto was strangely quiet. He was looking under the couches.

"Bokuto-san," Akaashi called him and put down a small box he couldn't open. Bokuto looked at him. "Are you okay?"

"Oh yeah!"

"That's a lie, isn't it?"

Bokuto smiled sadly and sat on the floor.

“Ah~ Akaashi, I can't fool you, huh? As expected from Akaashi! ”

“Bokuto-san...”

"Akaashi… Aren't you angry that I didn't tell my secret?"

"Why would I be?"

“I don't know… Maybe because you feel I don't trust you or-”

"Bokuto-san, do you feel like that, as you don't know my secret?" Akaashi asked, sitting in front of Bokuto and placing his hand on his knee.

"Not! Surely you have your reasons and- ”

"Exactly," Akaashi smiled. Bokuto grabbed his hand and intertwined his fingers. “You have your reasons too, and I respect that. I love you as you are, nothing you have done in the past will make me change that.”

"Akaashi, you'll make me cry!"

Bokuto pulled Akaashi into a hug, who hugged him back. He closed his eyes; Bokuto's body heat relaxed him...

"Iwa-chan found the key!"

Akaashi opened his eyes abruptly and tried to pull away from Bokuto, but the other still hugged him tightly.

"Ah, Bokuto-san, they are coming back..."

"Let them see!~"

"Woah, they're flirting again," Hinata announced as he returned to the living room.

"Damn, have some decency!" Yaku complained.

_ That's just jealousy because you' aren’t dating Lev… _ Kenma thought, hiding behind the giant that was Lev.

"Akaashi was comforting me~!"

"That sounds pretty weird, Bokuto-san..."

The moment everyone was gathered in the room, the shrill sound rang.

"This is the Voice," oh yes the typical beginning of the Voice. “Congratulations, Iwaizumi Hajime and Oikawa Tooru, for finding the key.”

_ Discovery of the day: I don't like this person saying my name _ , Oikawa thought, holding tight the key in his hand.

“Your reward is behind the locked door,” the Voice informed. "Please come in alone."

"Is this really a reward?" Oikawa asked. "Or is it a trap?"

"Why don't you come in to see?" The Voice answered and Oikawa knew they were smiling. And that annoyed him. "This is all for now."

Iwaizumi reached for Oikawa, asking for the key. All he received was Oikawa showing his tongue.

"I know what you're trying to do, Iwa-chan."

Iwaizumi muttered a "tch" but said nothing. Both went to the front of the door; Oikawa opened it without much ceremony. The room was small and white, with only two small sofas and a television attached to the wall.

"Is this the room?"

"It’s what it seems-"

One click.

They both looked at the door, which had closed by itself. Iwaizumi tried to open it, but it was locked. Before he could hit hard to get the attention of others, the ground gave way.

They were falling.

“FUCK!”

The clash was drowned out by a gym mattress. Iwaizumi patted his head, relieving a stab of pain he felt. He looked at Oikawa, who was clutching his knee-

_ The knee! _

"Hey, Oikawa!"

"I'm fine- fuck,  _ I'm fine _ ."

At that point, those words seemed more to him than anything. The knee was practically recovered, the doctor told him that it only needed a few weeks to be 100 percent. Recovery had been slower because Oikawa was still training, much against to his doctor's enjoyment, but he was recovering.

He couldn’t take steps back from his recoverment because of this game.

Iwaizumi helped him up. The pain was no longer so intense, but it was still there.  _ It will disappear, I know that. _

“This is the Voice. Are you ready for your reward? ”

A television turned on and they both widened their eyes as they saw their former teammates on it. They seemed to be in two different rooms: on the right were Matsukawa, Hanamaki and Watari, while on the left were Kunimi, Kindaichi, Kyotani and Yahaba. They seemed to be sleeping.

“You will have the opportunity to set them free! But for that you will have to pass these tests in 7 minutes.”

On the floor were four dolls. Oikawa noticed the resemblance to those in the room of the left. Above them and hanging from the ceiling were weights, probably ready to fall on top of the dolls.

“For the first test, one of you has to save the dolls, simple, isn’t it? Thus saving the young men they represent. The second...."

There were stairs leading to an upper path that led to another room. Television has changed its image; there was a huge weight over Matsukawa, Hanamaki and Watari.

“One of you will have to run and keep that weight from falling on these guys' heads. Fun, isn't it? The weight should be about 20 kilos. It shouldn't hurt much.”

"You…!"

“You have a minute to decide who takes which test. They start at the same time.”

Iwaizumi looked at Oikawa. If one of those weights falls on his knee…

"Iwa-chan, you are stronger and faster than me," Oikawa said. "You get the second test."

"But if-"

“ _ We _ have to  _ save them, _ Iwa-chan. My knee can handle it.”

Iwaizumi saw how determined Oikawa was – no matter what he could say to him in those remaining seconds he wouldn't change his mind.  _ You're a stubborn bastard. _

"Promise me you won't get hurt or I'll make the double of damage."

"What a meanie, Iwa-chan!"

Oikawa was smiling and that somehow relaxed Iwaizumi. He wanted to believe that nothing would happen to his partner. It was a false hope, something that was eating him inside.

But Oikawa reached out his fist and waited for the fist bump, almost a ritual for them, and Iwaizumi had to accept their fate.

"We'll make it," Iwaizumi said, corresponding to the fist bump.

The time is over. The sound warned them of that. Iwaizumi looked at Oikawa once more and started running up the vertical stairs, immediately climbing them.

Oikawa took a deep breath before running to the first doll, Kunimi's.  _ Okay, knee, don't disappoint me. _ He managed to escape the first weight that fell. It had been easy. He was confident that he was going to finish this test within 7 minutes, but as he looked at Kindaichi's doll, he noticed that it was moving. There was a thread that was dragging it from side to side, and so was the weight.

_ The Voice didn't say this! _

Oikawa ran after the doll, ignoring the stab of pain his knee had. He couldn't stop.

When he was near the doll, he tripped over something. A fishing wire. Oikawa cursed the Voice in his head and stood up. The doll stopped.

And Oikawa knew well what that meant. He started to run as quickly as possible and slid to the floor as the weight dropped.

Kindaichi was safe. Oikawa hugged the dolls in his arms, relieved to be able to save them.

The next doll was from Yahaba.  _ Ugh, it's far away _ ... Oikawa was trying to control his breathing. He was panting from the stress of that test. He swallowed and ran again, without letting go of the dolls.

As he ran, he noticed that on television there was the time that had passed. 3 minutes and 46 seconds.  _ Fuck. _

Oikawa felt his leg catch and fell, protecting the dolls from falling. He looked at his leg and saw that it was another fishing wire.

"Fuck you!"

With only one hand, he tried to pull away. With stress, it took too long. 5 minutes and 23 seconds.

He begged his legs to work. He was so close to Yahaba.

The weight was falling. Everything seemed to be in slow motion.

He had to make a decision. And he did it in seconds.

He rolled over and kicked the doll.

And screamed in pain as he felt the weight on the back of his knee.

But Oikawa couldn't stop. No matter what the pains were, Kyotani was still missing. He looked at the doll, ridiculously close compared to the others. As if they knew that Oikawa's knee would give up at that moment.

_ Mad Dog-chan, you are grumpy, you know... _ Oikawa pushed away the weight from his leg. The pain intensified as he did so, through grunts, but he forced to ignore it. He had to ignore it.  _ But I like you anyway… so I won't give up. I won't. _

He could no longer get up. He no longer had strength in his legs. Then he crawled over to the doll, bringing the others with him. He wouldn't leave them, he couldn't. He had to make sure they were safe.

And when he saw the weight drop, he pulled Kyotani's doll toward him in desperation.

_ Ah. I did it _ .

***

Iwaizumi forced himself to not to look at Oikawa; but it was inevitable. He heard the first weight fall and stopped running. He looked at Oikawa and breathed a sigh of relief to see him well, but anxiety returned as he ran after Kindaichi's doll.

_ No, I have to run. _

He ran again, ignoring what was going on below.

He left the room. Quickly found two ways to choose.  _ Of course, that wouldn’t be easy _ , he concluded bitterly. But he noticed a doll on the floor.  _ Watari! _

Iwaizumi took the doll and looked at the way. It could be a trap... But he had no time to think about that. He ran in that direction until he found another bifurcation and Hanamaki's doll hung on the gangway. He took it too, didn't want to risk it. After all, Oikawa's test was like that.

_ Shit, I don't know how much time has passed. _

He kept running, his thoughts racing.  _ What if the dolls are a trap? What if I should have gone the other way? _

He heard a cry of pain.

He stopped.

_ No, no, no! _

He wanted to go back, he really wanted to go back. Iwaizumi wanted to go back and have Oikawa in his arms, making sure he was all right, not in pain. But he couldn’t. He had to save his friends.

He ran again and noticed a surveillance camera. Ah. They were seeing them. They were probably watching Oikawa suffering. They. Were. Watching. Them.  _ I will kill you, bastards! Fuck! I'll make you pay for what you did! _

He saw at the end of the hallway. There was a Matsukawa doll, the last one missing. He also saw a hanging rope that seemed to be sagging.

Iwaizumi feared the worst and accelerated. He dropped the dolls and slid to catch the loose rope.

He grabbed it and shifted his position to use his legs to pull the weight. His muscles begged for mercy, but he couldn't. Iwaizumi wrapped the rope around his arm.  _ Fuck! _

Matsukawa felt dizzy for some reason. He didn't remember feeling that way when he usually wake up. He opened his eyes and smiled when he saw Hanamaki and Watari by his side-

_ Watari?! _

As if with an electric shock, Matsukawa woke up completely. He immediately noticed that they were trapped and that he couldn’t move his arms. He looked up.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"

Iwaizumi was surprised by the scream but didn't give in. That voice...  _ Matsukawa?! _

"Matsukawa, are you awake?!"

“Iwaizumi?! What the fuck is going on?!”

“We're stuck in a fucking survival game!”

His hands felt like burning, the muscles in his arms seemed to tear, the rope seemed to be cutting the skin of his arm. He had no time for conversation. He had to be fast. He strained his legs and tried to get up; his back was hurting. He began to retreat.

_ More strength! _

Matsukawa tried to drag himself, along with the sleeping Hanamaki and Watari.

_ More strength! _

The top of the weight was already visible.

_ Just a little more, fuck! _

Iwaizumi made his last effort and managed to put that weight on the floor. Iwaizumi fell, exhausted. But he immediately got up, running to the end to see his former colleagues.

“Matsu-”

His eyes widened. Matsukawa was lying on the floor, seemed to be sleeping. There was a man in black with a pistol in his hand.  _ No- _

"It's just tranquilizing darts," the man informed. From the tone of voice and instinct, Iwaizumi felt he wasn’t the Voice. "We will keep the promise and set them free."

"Why are you doing this?!"

“On a whim?” He shrugged. “Isn't it better to run to your partner? He is in pain, unlike these here.”

Iwaizumi hated to follow this man's advice, but he needed to see how Oikawa was doing. He cursed and took the dolls. He forced himself to run, no matter how hard his muscles and lungs wanted to rest.  _ Please, Oikawa, be okay, that scream was only my imagination and that- _

Oikawa was lying fetally on the floor, as if protecting the dolls. He was crying silently, sobbing in secret. Even by himself he was doing his best.

“Tooru! Hey, Tooru!”

Iwaizumi descended the stairs as fast as he could and ran to him. He grabbed his body – he was warm, too warm.  _ Fever?! _

"Ah, Iwa-chan… You came back… You're wet."

"Shut up, Tooru!"

"Iwa-chan, I saved them all!" Slowly and trembling, Oikawa showed the dolls in his lap. Iwaizumi wanted to cry to see him like this. "They are okay…"

"Your knee…?"

"It hurts," he replied tearfully. "It hurts a lot. But it doesn't matter, it's weird."

"You are delirious with fever-"

"No. They are fine... Ah... I wonder if..." Oikawa closed his eyes. "This is what my parents felt…"

Oikawa fell asleep in Iwaizumi's arms, like a child tired from a tantrum. His knee was bleeding. Iwaizumi wanted to scream, curse the Voice and their team, curse the audience, curse the whole world!

A part of the room, until now dark, lit up. There were stairs that linked to a trapdoor. It was the way out.

Iwaizumi placed the dolls he brought in Oikawa's lap and stood with him in his arms, ignoring all the pain in the muscles. The pain didn't matter. Oikawa mattered more.

He walked to the exit. That trapdoor led into the mansion's kitchen.

On a slow, almost lifeless walk, Iwaizumi made his way to the room where everyone was.

The television, which was off when they entered that damned secret room, was on.

Everyone saw what happened to Oikawa. He didn’t.

Hinata was clinging to Sugawara, clearly trying to not to make noise while crying. Eita had the first aid kit in hand.

“Iwa-”

"Say nothing," he begged. He was exhausted, tired, angry. He didn't want to hear anything. Nothing would change what had just happened.

Iwaizumi made his way to one of the rooms. He put Oikawa on one of the beds and took the kit from Eita's hands.

"I do it  _ myself _ ."

Eita got the message and left the room, closing the door. After unsuccessfully trying to remove the dolls that Oikawa was gripping with all his might, Iwaizumi began to treat his knee.  _ Even asleep you are protecting them... _

“Sorry, Tooru… Sorry… I couldn't protect you. Again."

There was no answer. He stopped treating his knee and pulled Oikawa's shirt up. There was a scar on his belly.

"This was definitely not a fall, you idiot..." Iwaizumi muttered. “Why did you never tell me what really happened…?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, hey, hey! >:3 Did you enjoyed this chapter?
> 
> IwaOi shippers, how are you feeling? haha! Okay, sorry-
> 
> This chapter starts at part 13 and ends at part 20! >:3  
> The questions that were made in this chapter:  
> \- Who do you want to follow? (okay, it was between last chapter and this one) -> Both TsukiSuga and BokuAka got the most votes  
> \- Will Iwaizumi accept Oikawa's plan? -> Yeah, he accepted.
> 
> Again, feel free to scream at me at the commentaries, share your theories or whatever, I will love to see some feedback! >:3
> 
> See you next time~


	3. Boom of emotions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, hey, hey!
> 
> I was meant to post this last week, but I'm lazy and only now I decided to do so.
> 
> I hope you all had a great Christmas and I wish you a good 2020! May you all be blessed with happiness!
> 
> Have a nice reading! :'3

_ “Come here, Chihiro! Let me see how you look in that dress.” _

Eita opened his eyes. How long he hadn’t dreamed of this woman.  _ My name isn’t Chihiro… _ he sat on the bed. One day had passed. After what happened with Oikawa and Iwaizumi, the Voice said nothing more. Iwaizumi refused to leave Oikawa's side, just as he refused to eat too.

He looked to the side; Daishou had already woken up. Eita got out of bed and saw that Lev had fallen down from the bed. His legs were up – that even made Eita want to laugh. It was probably Yaku who pushed him down during the night.

Eita went to the kitchen, wanted to drink water. There he met Daishou, Sugawara and Akaashi drinking coffee.

"Good morning, Semi!" Sugawara greeted and lifted his mug. "Do you want coffee?"

"Good morning. No, just water.”

Akaashi took a glass from the cupboard and gave it to Eita, who thanked him.

"How is Iwaizumi?"

"He is sleeping," Akaashi replied. "On a chair."

"I even suggested he sleep with Tsukishima, that our bed was right next to Oikawa's, and I would sleep on the couch..." Sugawara said, sighing. "But he refused to leave Oikawa's side."

"I would look like this too if it were Mika," Daishou confessed, caressing the back of his neck. One thing Eita noticed was that he did this many times. "How long have they been dating?"

"They aren’t dating," Sugawara said.

"What?!"

Eita almost choked on his water.

"I know! It's weird, they look basically married, but they're not together yet.”

"Sugawara-san, you look like a neighborhood lady gossiping," Akaashi commented, despite being interested in the conversation.

"Oh, I've been told that many times."

“Got any dirty from that idiot of Kuroo?” Daishou decided to try his luck.

"Ah yes, I have!"

"I have too," Akaashi informed.

***

According to the microwave clock, it was lunch time. They had made lunch without much trouble; there was food enough in the kitchen cabinets and in the fridge and nothing seemed dangerous. Deciding who cooked was the hardest. Kenma had been immediately eliminated because making noodles is not cooking – Yaku suspected he knew how to cook, even if it was the basics, but lied to not to have to help. He was going to say that, but Lev commented that he wanted to eat something made by Yaku and Yaku quickly volunteered for such a noble job.

Sugawara, after thinking how easy it was to manipulate Yaku, decided to help too.

And of course that was one of the reasons why Sugawara was frustrated that Iwaizumi had again denied coming to eat with them. He understood that Oikawa's situation was worrying, that sometimes he raved and mumbled, "Leave me alone" or "Stop following me" in his dreams. He understood the situation  _ well _ .

But that wasn’t how things were going to work out.

"Iwaizumi, can we have a serious talk?"

Iwaizumi looked at Sugawara, without much interest in the eventual conversation, but nodded positively.

"Honestly, Iwaizumi, I think you're being a nuisance to Oikawa."

"What?!"

"Do you  _ really  _ think it's by slopping that you're going to help Oikawa?" Sugawara asked, his eyes fixed on Iwaizumi's. "Look at you, you haven't eaten since yesterday, and if no one tells you anything, you'll keep going like this until Oikawa wakes up or until you pass out and we have to take care of you. I know you're worried about Oikawa, and that you want let him be all right, but you have to take care of yourself first."

"I don't want to leave Oikawa alone-"

"But he isn’t  _ alone _ !" Sugawara exclaimed; There was frustration in his tone, as if Iwaizumi didn't understand the most obvious thing in the world. " _ You _ aren’t  _ alone _ !  _ We  _ are _ here  _ too! Look, I know we weren't teammates and we don't have the same camaraderie as you and your team, but we're here and you can count on  _ us _ !"

Iwaizumi didn't know how to respond. No matter what the answer was, it would all sound bad. In the end, he sighed.

"Right…"

"Great, now go eat," Sugawara ordered. "I will keep an eye on Oikawa. Anything I’ll call you."

"Okay…"

Grudgingly, Iwaizumi went to the kitchen. Sugawara, as soon as he made sure that Iwaizumi was far enough away, closed the door and sat in the chair.

"Oikawa, you're awake."

"Hm… Maybe your angelic voice woke me up, Suga-chan," Oikawa replied. His cheeks were red and wet due to the fever.

"Don’t be stupid," Sugawara put his hand on the other's forehead. "The medication isn’t working?"

"I don't know," Oikawa rubbed his face in the other's hand, like a cat. "Your hand is cold."

"You're the hot one."

"You're used to it."

Sugawara continued to rub his face.

"Oikawa, I think we better stop being friends with benefits," he said. Oikawa's eyes widened.

"Huh? Really, you wanna break up with me?" Oikawa laughed softly but eventually growled in pain.

"We aren’t boyfriends," Sugawara reached for the cloth, resting on the nightstand, and wiped Oikawa's face. "After all, we have no feelings for each other. You like-"

"That’s hurts me... Suga-chan, I like you very much."

“Not as much as you like Iwaizumi, Oikawa. Be honest with yourself.”

Oikawa was silent, staring at the ceiling of the room. He was afraid, and Sugawara knew it, which is why they were able to compromise when they both needed warm, quick comfort.

“You know how Iwaizumi feels,” Sugawara informed. "And he's more important to you than me."

"You should have more confidence in yourself..." Oikawa gasped and straightened on the bed, feeling dizzy and sleepy again. "After all, I gave you... my two virginities."

“It was an equivalent exchange, idiot. And you shouldn't talk these things with that sleepy face. Go, sleep.”

As if that were enough, Oikawa fell asleep.  _ He's really tired, he's usually the last to fall asleep… _ , Sugawara thought, rising from his chair and kissing Oikawa's forehead.

He heard a glass falling.

Sugawara felt his blood run cold as he saw Iwaizumi standing at the door.  _ Ah fuck _ .

"Oh, the glass didn't break."

"Sugawara, what does this mean?"

_ That’s a deadly glare _ , Sugawara noted. Iwaizumi was furious; and even rightly so.  _ Today I’m going to die. _

Iwaizumi set his plate on a piece of furniture and went towards Sugawara.  _ Shit, he has a knife. _ He pulled him out of the room, away from Oikawa, and pushed him against the wall. Quickly the knife was against Sugawara's neck, who had gone pale.

"I asked, what does this mean, Sugawara?"

"Nothing-"

"I heard you."

"Since…?"

"Virginities," he said in a tone of disgust.

_ Obviously you didn't hear that he likes you, damn you. _

“Don't worry Iwaizumi, we were just friends with benefits and it's over-”

“ _ Just _ friends with benefits?”

“Iwaizumi, you aren’t entitled to be jealous,” Sugawara commented, even though aware that at any time he could have a nice cut in the neck. He couldn't afford to show he was terrified. "You didn't even confess to him."

"Shut up!"

"Hey, what does it feel like to see objects of mine in his house?" Sugawara teased. He knew that Iwaizumi had already seen and asked about this to Oikawa. "Oh, I think you also noticed that we are very touchy."

A stab of pain was what he felt. Iwaizumi pressed the knife harder; there was probably a slight cut in the skin, but Sugawara wasn’t going to give in. He had his pride to keep.

"Do you think Oikawa would like to see this?"

“Don't get between us!”

“Oh, but I think I've gotten myself between you. That's why I have a knife against my neck, right?”

“Hey, hey, hey! What is happening here?”

They both looked to the side and saw Bokuto approaching. Akaashi and Tsukishima were behind, surprised by the scene. Sugawara smiled and took advantage of the fact that Iwaizumi was quiet to take the knife.

“Oh, nothing is wrong. We're doing some fanservice for the audience,” he invented, placing the knife against Iwaizumi's chin. "Some people like this kind of thing, don't they?"

Iwaizumi couldn't answer. He simply stepped away from Sugawara and took the knife back.

"You should have a talk with Oikawa about these feelings," Sugawara muttered and turned away from him, heading towards Tsukishima. "Hey, Tsukishima, let's go to the library."

Unable to answer, Tsukishima was dragged by Sugawara to the library. He locked the door and ended up hugging Tsukishima.

"Can I cry on you?"

"Even if I said no, you'll do it anyway."

"You're right."

Sugawara laughed before he began to cry quietly. Tsukishima stroked his head. No matter how strong Sugawara looked, he was terrified.  _ I wonder what he did to make Iwaizumi-san so angry...  _ Sugawara made him lose his balance and they both fell to the floor. Even so, Sugawara was still clinging.  _ Damn it... _

"I’m sorry, I’m  _ so _ sorry...!" Sugawara muttered, between silent sobs. Tsukishima knew it wasn’t about them falling. He stroked his back.

"You did nothing wrong..." Tsukishima said, although he didn’t know what happened. He knew Sugawara was a good person.  _ Unlike me... _

"It hurts so much…!"

"I know... It will pass soon..."

***

Crows liked shining things – it was something Daichi told Sugawara one day. And that could apply to him too.

From an early age, Sugawara liked bright things. Be it objects or even people. He was easily fascinated by the brilliance of others. And that's why he was fascinated by Oikawa when he first saw him.

It was a mere admiration, but he couldn't take his eyes off him.

Oikawa was also interested in him.

They talked a few times, but they were just trivial things.

Only when both became helpers of the same professor at the university they became better friends.

And what had to happen just happened. It began with a simple touch of the fingers as they both tried to grab the same book. A  _ cliché _ , perhaps, but it was like the spark to start it all. It was Oikawa who kissed him, but it was he who hugged him and let it happen.

Admiration became attraction. There were no feelings involved, just the search for immediate comfort.

Sugawara knew this wasn’t wrong and that there was nothing to regret. If he went back in time, he would be Oikawa's friend with benefits again.

But he would like to stop that game.

Especially since he didn't know where the hell he was right now.

He had fallen asleep in Tsukishima's arms, if his memory didn’t deceive him.

Now… He was in a dark room, sitting in a chair, that was actually comfortable, but with his legs and one arm stuck to it. With his free hand he tried to pull free, but failed.

The lights went on, as if waiting for some Sugawara’s movement, and a television went on. It showed the room with his companions.

Tsukishima had just entered the room; He looked worried.

“Does anyone know where Sugawara-san is? He disapp-”

The sharp sound of the Voice interrupted him. Even there where Sugawara was he could hear it.

“This is the Voice; are you ready for another game?” Voice began. “The game is simple; it's called the Hot Potato. If you take a look under the first bed of the four-bed room, you'll found a special ball for this game.”

Akaashi went to get the ball, wondering when that ball got there.  _ They walk through the mansion without us seeing… _

“You will have to pass the ball to the next one as quickly as possible, using a song as a timer. And when the song is over… Boom! The ball will explode in the hands of the person who has it,” the Voice laughed and everyone got goosebumps. “Of course that alone would be boring, wouldn't it? To make more interesting your friend Sugawara… ” The television showed Sugawara who immediately searched for the camera.“... will read you some questions that you will have to answer before passing the ball. Cool, isn't it? In this game Oikawa and Iwaizumi won’t participate, but it will be fun! This is all for now!"

Everyone looked at the ball. They had to decide who started...

"How are we going to decide who starts?" Akaashi asked. “The first person should be more likely to not to be the last one...”

"We could do it like basketball," Atsumu suggested.

"There are people at a disadvant- Ouch, Yaku-san!" Lev complained of pain at being hit by Yaku.

"There are people in  _ advantage _ , you mean, you giant!"

Kenma rolled his eyes and walked to one of the cupboard, pulling out a notebook and pen.

“We can write our names, mix it up and take it by luck.”

"Oh, good idea, Kenma-san!"

They did it and the winner was Tsukishima, who grabbed the ball and looked at the television, watching Sugawara's reactions. He felt guilty – he didn’t know how he had fallen asleep; he wasn't even tired, what about being sleepy…

The music has started. It was the circus music.

"Are you kidding us?!" Yaku asked, annoyed.

"Ah, it's your song, Hinata," Tsukishima commented; Hinata had no time to answer. "Sugawara-san, start with the questions."

The television in front of Sugawara showed the questions he needed to ask.

"What is your favorite food?"

“Strawberry shortcake,” passed the ball to Kenma, who grabbed the ball in surprise.

“What's your best friend's name?”

"Kuro..." passed the ball to Yaku, who had to control himself to not to receive it as if it were a volleyball game.

"Favourite colour?"

"Red!"

Yaku sent the ball to Lev and the idiot had to receive the ball and send it across the room.

“OH YOU IDIOT!”

"SORRY!"

“FORGET HINATA, THIS MUSIC IS YOURS!”

"HEY, DON'T PUT ME IN THE NOISE!"

"Oh my God," Sugawara muttered and hit his own face. As soon as he saw that Lev had the ball back in his hands, he read the question. “Who is your favorite sportswoman?”

“Oh! That’s easy: my sister Haiba Alisa!” Lev passed the ball to Eita.

"Hm… what's your name?" Sugawara asked, arching an eyebrow.  _ What the hell is this question... _

"Semi Eita-" suddenly his hands began to burn and he dropped the ball to the floor. "Ouch!"

“Boo boo! Invalid answer!” The Voice spoke. "Try again!"

"Ah, fuck off…" he murmured.

Eita stared at the camera, feeling his own breathing failing. He felt watched, questioned. Semi Eita was his name, the name he received at birth, given by his parents. How the hell did they know of  _ that  _ name? And worse than maybe he couldn't even lie or omit, that maybe he would end up with a worse consequence than having his hands burned. Damn, that ball could very well explode the moment he lie!

“Chihiro,” and sent the ball to Daishou, hoping no one would ask about that name he hated so much.

“What is your favorite memory?”

“The day Mika and I started living together!” He sent the ball to Osamu.

"What is your worst memory?"

“Ugh… One day Tsumu stopped breathin’ while sleepin’,” he sent the ball to his brother. Atsumu raised an eyebrow. He didn't remember that.

“Where does your nickname come from?”

"Samu and I wanted names that sounded like foreigners."

Akaashi received the ball and wondered how much time had passed. Hinata and Bokuto were still missing, he had to be quick to respond or something could happen to them.

“What is your favorite bird?”

"Owls," he was going to send the ball to Bokuto, but he signaled Akaashi to send the ball to Hinata. He did so.

“What is the name of your elementary school teacher?”

Hinata's world seemed to have been shaken.  _ No… Anything but that question. _ He felt dizzy, the memories flashing through his mind, all at once, in an explosion of images that made his stomach turn and cause him to lose strength in his legs. He bent down, letting the ball fall to the floor, and hugged his own legs. The head hurt like lightning. Her voice was beginning to grow louder from the back of his memory.

_ "Hey, Hinata-kun, what do you think-" _

Hinata passed out.

"Shouyou?!" Kenma exclaimed and was the first to go to the rescue. No one could move.

Sugawara tried to break free of the chair; his pulse seemed to be dislocating, but he didn't want to know. He  _ needed  _ to go there.

The music continued.

Bokuto knew it was ending. And just as anything could happen, he grabbed the ball and left the room.

"Bokuto-san!" Akaashi shouted and went after him.

But the song is over.

The ball exploded in Bokuto's hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeeey! Did you enjoyed this? Haha! OiSuga fans, how are you feeling? Time to add OiSuga in the relationships
> 
> This chapter starts at part 21 and ends at part 28! >:3  
> The question that was made in this chapter:  
> "Who will start the game? (PS: the least voted character will be the last one to receive the ball :'3 )" -> It was Tsukishima the most voted and Bokuto the least voted. The Bokuto Protection Squad failed :(
> 
> See you next time!


	4. In shades of red

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, hey, hey!
> 
> I'm back! How are you? >:3 Thank you, again, for the kudos and comments! Feel free to leave more btw!
> 
> Ah sometimes I wonder if it would be better if I posted all the chapters I have in one go, but then you would have to wait more because I procrastinate a lot... Oh welp.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Water. Akaashi needed water.

No, no. He needed cold compresses. He needed to clean the burn. It wasn’t first degree. It was second degree.

And he needed to keep calm.  _ Keeping calm is fundamental in nurses _ , he remembered what his teacher constantly said. Akaashi had to remain calm; one wrong action and everything could go wrong. And he didn't want to risk Bokuto's arm.

"Bokuto-san, please stay still."

"Akaashi, it hurts..."

"I know..."

Daishou and Yaku hurriedly approached them and widened when they saw Bokuto's left arm. The skin was an intense shade of red and was beginning to blister, some even with pus.

"Akaashi, is there anything we can do...?" Yaku asked.

“Please see if there are cold compresses on the refrigerator. I also need a dry cloth and sterile gauze to cover the arm.”

They both went looking for what Akaashi asked. He quickly searched the pockets of his coat and took out hand sanitizer. Then he raised Bokuto's arm.

"Bokuto-san, I know it hurts, but you have to keep your arm up, okay?"

"Right..." Bokuto grunted. “Sorry, Akaashi, I acted without thinking and-”

"I know."

Akaashi wanted to cry when he saw Bokuto doing his best. He swallowed and analyzed the burn again. It was at most a second degree burn. There were no signs of skin loss, but it was too early to know since he hadn’t yet cleaned it. The likelihood of a scar was high, but the muscles didn’t appear to be in danger at the moment; that is, if he don't get an infection…

As soon as Daishou and Yaku returned with what Akaashi asked, he provided first aid. Akaashi held firm despite Bokuto's screams of pain.

_ Everything will be fine _ , Akaashi thought.  _ I have to do my best for Bokuto-san. _

As soon as he had treated his arm, he took a deep breath. Bokuto's face was red from screaming, his cheeks wet with sweat and maybe tears.

"Bokuto-san... Don't move your arm..."

"Okay-"

Akaashi began to cry and leaned his face against Bokuto's chest.

"P-Please don't do anything dangerous anymore!" He pleaded, between sobs.

"Akaashi..."

With his right arm, Bokuto stroked Akaashi's back and kissed his forehead several times, in a way to calm him down.

Akaashi had done his best.

***

In the midst of this confusion, the television had turned off. Hinata was taken to the room, carefully. His breathing was steady. Kenma was trying to control his anxiety with fidgets. That was too much.

Tsukishima realized that the television had turned off. He was afraid something might have happened to Sugawara and ran to the library. The door was locked, but Tsukishima could hear sounds from inside. Lot of people.

"Sugawara-san?!" Tsukishima tried to open the door, but without much success. The noise increased. They were there. Sugawara should be there too. Tsukishima tried to knock the door down again without success.

"Tsukki, what is it?" Lev asked, bringing him closer to him.

“There are people in there. More than one.”

Lev shivered. Maybe the Voice was behind that door.

"Let's try to knock the door down together," Lev suggested. Tsukishima shook his head.

Again they tried to knock the door down until they heard a click.

The door had been unlocked.

Tsukishima opened the door quickly.

_ Oh my God. _

As if he was a piece of art displayed in a museum, Sugawara was hung from the chandelier, tied with red ropes and dressed in a greenish black kimono. The arms and legs were tied together. He slept in an apparent tranquility, like an angel.

_ He is still breathing…! _

"We have to get him out," Lev said. "But how…?"

"We need a knife."

Lev shook his head and went to the kitchen for a knife. Meanwhile, Tsukishima planned how to get Sugawara out of there.

Looked around. There was a table, maybe they could drag it under Sugawara…

_ Let’s do this… _

Tsukishima began to push the table; the wood was heavy, but he wanted- No, he  _ had  _ to be fast. As soon as Lev returned, he helped him push the table.

Then both went up to the table.

"You cut the rope and I grab him," Tsukishima said.

"Okay!"

As soon as Tsukishima made sure Sugawara wouldn’t fall, Lev cut the rope. Tsukishima then sat down with Sugawara to verify that he wouldn’t hurt himself. He looked at his sleeping face. He asked Lev for the knife and began to cut the ropes that covered the older man's body. He noticed that one of his arms, around his wrist, was black and he was afraid it was broken.

He knew Akaashi was busy with Bokuto and was probably on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

"Let's take him to the bedroom," Lev suggested, wondering what was going on in Tsukishima's mind. "When Akaashi is calmer, we ask him to see his arm."

"Right…"

_ We'd better go to the other room… _ , Tsukishima pondered, leaving the table with Sugawara in his arms.  _ I don't want Sugawara-san to be in the same room as Iwaizumi... _

***

Atsumu found a red envelope on the floor. In a mixture of curiosity and hesitation, he opened it.

Inside there were two secrets.

**_I stalked █████████_ ** **_and tried to kill him when I was rejected._ **

**_I killed █████████_ ** **_, but an impostor appeared. There’s an impostor between you!_ **

_ What the fuck…? _ Atsumu asked, shocked by what he read. An impostor. Was there an imposter among them…?

No, whose secrets were those? From any of them…?

"Samu, look what I found," he approached his brother and handed the papers to him.

"What the fuck?"

"That's what I thought when I saw it."

"The impostor..." Osamu repeated and looked at Eita, who was at the other end of the room, too far away for him to hear. "Maybe  _ Chihiro _ ?"

"Don’t know…"

Atsumu grunted in frustration. This was a terrible time for such information. There were three unconscious people, one with a burned arm, and the only person with medical knowledge was busier than a working ant.

That was a chaos.

“When everything calms down we show it,” Osamu suggested. There was no other option at that time.

***

Sugawara had opened his eyes. Had he fallen asleep again…? Ah, yes... He remembered... Someone had approached him and put a cloth in his mouth... And had muttered "sweet dreams." It had been a woman.

He sat on the bed and grunted in pain. His wrist was covered with bandages. Also, he noticed that he was wearing a kimono. Had someone changed his clothes…? Oh, he had something on his underwear elastic-

A photo…?

"Sugawara-san, are you awake yet?"

Sugawara hid the photo and smiled at Tsukishima, who entered the room. Now Sugawara noticed in Hinata, who was sleeping in the next bed. He made a mention to get up, to go to him, but Tsukishima stopped him.

"You should rest."

"I'm fine, Tsukishima," he replied. "Seriously. How long did I sleep?

"One hour."

Sugawara jumped out of bed and approached Hinata. He slept calmly… Sugawara would like to have a  _ talk  _ with his teacher.

"The twins found two more secrets."

“Two more…?”

Tsukishima explained what the secrets consisted of.

“How would anyone not notice an impostor before….?” Sugawara asked.

_ Wait _ ... he thought.  _ Wouldn't I be the most suspicious? _ He was gone. No one had seen him come back.

No one knew if he was the real Sugawara.

"Tsukishima, I hope you know I'm not the impostor-"

"I didn't even think about that, Sugawara-san."

Sugawara smiled.

_ I wonder who took that picture... _

***

Oikawa no longer had a fever. The medication had worked. But his knee hurt like hell. The painkiller was taking a long time to work and he couldn’t walk.

Not that it kept him from trying. Iwaizumi had scolded him many times before, but Oikawa appreciated his concern. Although he wasn't expecting Iwaizumi to take him to the bathroom and try to bathe him. He managed to get him out of the bathroom, but that wasn’t good for his heart.

As much as it hurt, he dressed himself, but had to call Iwaizumi to take him to their room.

Or that was his intention.

“This is the Voice. I want everyone to gather in the living room.”

Oikawa grunted in frustration and Iwaizumi made him sit on the couch. Suddenly, Oikawa noticed the state of Bokuto and Sugawara.  _ What the hell happened…? _

He didn't see Hinata anywhere either.

“You sure found the new secrets, didn't you? Well!”

Two photos of two girls appeared on the television screen: underneath were A-cchi and B-chan. Probably fake names. Oikawa bit his lip when he saw one of them.  _ Why- _

Something fell and broke. Everyone looked at Lev, who had retreated until he was leaning against one of the furniture. He was pale, as if he had seen a ghost, and was sweating cold.  _ Oh he knows the other girl. _

“Lev-”

“Why- why is she-? How- No-”

His legs gave way and he fell to the floor. Yaku ran to him. Lev was clearly hyperventilating. That was a panic attack.

"How about we ask the audience a favor?" The Voice announced. “In ten minutes, the audience will have to decide between Haiba Lev's well-being and the lives of these two girls.”

"What…?"

“If they choose Haiba Lev's well-being, we will return his anxiety medication. But by choosing this option, Iwaizumi Hajime and Yaku Morisuke will have to kill these girls. The Voting… Starts now.”

The image of television has changed. It was a footage of a school. A boy appears, eyes censored. Yaku knew that a good thing wasn’t coming.

"Lev, look at me!" He ordered, placing his hands on Lev's ears, who couldn't help but stare at the television. "Damn, someone turn that crap off!"

_ “This school has an urban legend!” _ He exclaimed, approaching a staircase. Sugawara got up and took a blanket. Then he put in on the television.  _ “This is where a student was murdered 4 years ago!” _

"How the hell does this crap turn off?" Osamu asked, trying to figure out how to stop the sound. There were no buttons on the television.

The sound increased. Lev grunted in fear. No no no no!

“All of you, get out of here! Don't dare to hear any of this!” Yaku pleaded. He was desperate. Without arguments, they left. They knew Lev was suffering. One of those girls was to blame.

Only Kenma stayed behind. He wanted to give back the fidgets, but his own panic prevented him of doing that. Lev also had anxiety, just like him, but he never noticed before.

_ “No one liked him, but they say his death was accidental. Officially, because the culprit said it was on purpose, but her parents told her to lie… It seems his dads were famous, but the media hid it all. She pushed him off these stairs and- ” _

The footage seemed to have been interrupted. Maybe it had stopped-

_ “Haiba Lev died – I killed him.” It was a girl's voice. “But an impostor appeared. He was just like him. The way of walking, the way of speaking, the sad way of looking. But Haiba Lev is dead.” _

"Sorry, sorry, sorry for existing!" Lev was crying and made Yaku feel his heart crushing.

"Don’t be sorry! Please, Lev…! Listen to me! Don’t listen to her, just to me! Please!"

_ “So, we ignored him. Maybe he would leave. But he didn't leave. Maybe it was his ghost. So we put flowers on his table, but he would remove them. Every day. We did exorcisms, threw salt, but nothing worked. Until one day. He disappeared. Finally, that's what we thought! Haiba Lev is dead and at peace on the other side! But he showed up on graduation day... Haiba Lev is dead. He just wanted his diploma.” _

***

"Which one?"

Oikawa looked at Iwaizumi, confused by that question.

"Which one caused your scar?"

"Iwa-chan, I fell-"

"Tooru," Iwaizumi approached Oikawa. "Don’t lie to me. I know you too well to know that’s a lie.”

"But it isn’t-"

"Do you think I never noticed how uncomfortable you are when you're around women?!"

Oikawa's eyes widened. He tried to answer, but didn't know how. Iwaizumi knew him better than he thought.

"I don’t know-"

"Really, will you continue to deny it?!" Iwaizumi exclaimed, gripping his own hair in frustration. “I know, Tooru, I know how pale you look when a woman touches you or how happy you look when I take you away from them!  _ I know! _ I've been protecting you since this so-called fall! I've been driving these crazy girls away from you and will do the same with Sugawara if necessary and-”

"Wait, wait!" Oikawa was shocked by what he had just said. "What the hell are you saying, Iwa-chan?!"

"I know you and Sugawara are sex buddies!" Iwaizumi replied. “I know I shouldn't get into it, but who knows what his secret is! He may be the stalker or has tried to kill someone! I want to protect you! ”

"Iwa-chan, did you break Suga-chan's arm?!"

"Not! I just- I just put a knife around his neck and-”

"Oh my God! You are an idiot! Stupid!” Oikawa raised his voice. “Goddammit, what the hell were you doing?! My God, Suga-chan is a good person!”

“I also thought they were all good people, but look at the secrets! Look at this whole situation! I just want to protect you because I love you! ”

Time seemed to stand still. Those words... Those words that Oikawa wanted so much to hear from Iwaizumi lips. Oikawa felt his eyes getting wet and pulled Iwaizumi for a kiss, which surprised him.

"Don't think I forgive you for what you did to Suga-chan," Oikawa said between chaste kisses. "If you hurt him again, I’ll hurt you twice."

“I will, huh… Apologize.”

“You better be in your damn knees,” he separated himself from Iwaizumi. They shouldn’t do more at that situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oya? Oya oya? Oya oya oya?
> 
> How are we feeling, BokuAka, LevYaku and IwaOi fans? Everything for my good ships (as if I don't ship everyone with everyone. I do. This could have been an orgy house and I would be happy with it- Oh. Maybe I should try to write a nsfw version of this...)
> 
> ANYWAY!
> 
> This chapter starts at part 29 and ends at part 35! >:3  
> The question that was made in this chapter:  
> "Which one do you want?" --> Between Lev's well-being and those girls lives. The result will be revealed next chapter!
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	5. The cat is looking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone!
> 
> Before of anything, I'm sorry for taking so long to update, even though the chapters are all ready to go. I wanted to update this at the same time as the twitter version, however, I was so mentally dead (I'm still dead) that I still didn't write new updates.
> 
> Honestly, I'm so dead that I'm already writing the epilogues, even though there's still some story to go. Ugh, sorry for the vent.
> 
> (in case you forgot, the Twitter version has more updates than this one)
> 
> I hope you have a good reading!

“Ding ding! The 10 minutes have passed!” The Voice announced. The sound of the voices of Lev's former colleagues faded. "Please look under the box on the commode."

Yaku looked at Kenma, as if in a silent request to be him to go. Lev had at some point grabbed Yaku's shirt and wouldn’t let go of it so quickly.

Kenma hurried to comply with the request. There was a key underneath the box, probably to open it. He tried it and in fact opened it. Inside was a bottle with Lev's handwriting on the sticker. _Lev won... Those girls-_

When Kenma moved his head, he noticed that something was behind the frame in the wall. He threw the flask at Yaku, who grabbed it instinctively, and opened it. He hoped, almost prayerfully, that this wasn’t a trap and that the medication hadn’t been changed.

"Hey, Lev, here is your medication-"

Lev was breathing heavily, as if he had just run the marathon. He felt nauseated, wanting to vomit.

"So- So… Ugh sorry," Lev murmured, in a tearful tone. Yaku's eyes widened. “It's my fault, you-”  
"Who told you this is your fault?" Yaku asked. “Lev, I hate blood; I really hate it, but I hate more the idea that something might happen to you,” he looked at the camera. “Especially because Voice didn't conveniently say the consequences of what would happen if the audience preferred girls…”  
“Oh! Well said, Yaku Morisuke!” The Voice answered. "In fact, we had a game ready for Haiba Lev. Too bad we'll have to leave it for later."  
“Mo-”

The sound was interrupted. There was someone beside the Voice.

But Yaku decided to ignore it.

“Lev, I'll make sure nothing happens to you. Now, about the medication- ”  
"I can't take it on an empty stomach…" Lev informed. He wasn’t hungry, nor did he have a stomach for it. "Glass of sugar water will be enough…"

Lev tried to get up, but his legs twitched and he sat down again. He laughed nervously, in a forced way. He was in a such pity state. His body only trembled, as if he was a newborn animal learning to walk. Yaku quickly volunteered to go get the drink.

Lev looked at Kenma, who was taking the frame off the wall. Almost immediately the frame fell to the floor.

There was a television with the image of a room strangely familiar to Lev.

“Kenma-san, isn’t that-”  
"Yeah..." Kenma looked at Lev. "Looks like Kuro's room..."

***

The lights went out.

Iwaizumi felt the wall he was leaning against disappearing. When he realized, he was no longer in the same room.

 _Again behind the walls…_ , Iwaizumi thought, rising from the floor. _So I have to kill one of the girls, huh…_

In the end Oikawa didn't tell him which one it was.

He looked at one of the walls and saw a rope. Maybe the Voice wanted him to use it. He took it and went looking for the girl. The lighting was dim, almost macabre... He felt watched. There would be cameras around, he felt.

Ah… That reminded him of a courage test that he and Oikawa had done as children. Walking through the woods in the middle of the night wasn’t the best of ideas, but there was a small shrine lost among the trees. Legend has it that the entity of that shrine has the power to fulfill any wish requested at midnight, and Oikawa had insisted on going there.

And as much as he pretended otherwise, Iwaizumi couldn't say ‘no’ to Oikawa's lovely face from an early age.

The deeper they were into the forest, the more watched they felt.

He still remembered Oikawa gripping his arm tightly, almost crying with fear… But when they found the shrine, he showed one of the brightest smiles Iwaizumi had seen.

Ah. Iwaizumi was smiling in a passionate way. I look like an idi-  
He felt someone grab his shirt. He looked out of the corner of his eye.

Here's the girl. Much shorter than him, with brown hair, tied in a ponytail, brown eyes. A-cchi.

“Huh… Do you know where we are…?”

Iwaizumi shook his head that no. _She is like a fly attracted to the light that will kill her…_ A-cchi should be too naive, who would dare approach someone in such a situation?

But he would take the chance.

"Maybe we'll find a way out by going in front?" He suggested, continuing to walk, thus forcing the girl to drop his shirt. She followed him.

They came to a dead end. A-cchi approached the wall, as if trying to find some secret door.

 _Ah… Here's the perfect opportunity…_ , Iwaizumi looked at the rope, half hesitantly. His conscience screamed how wrong that was, but he had to play.

He approached A-cchi and wrapped the rope around her neck, tightening it tightly. A-cchi tried to pull free of the rope, but in vain. However, she used her elbow to hit Iwaizumi's ribs. The rope became less tight and she took the opportunity to pull a knife under her skirt.

Immediately, she hit Iwaizumi's thigh, who staggered back. The rope has fallen. A-cchi was breathing heavily, but she drew another knife and ran toward Iwaizumi, hitting his belly and knocking him down. _Shit!_

The game turned against him. She smiled, as if she knew this was going to happen, and grabbed the knife, ready to hit him harder, again.

Iwaizumi felt stupid for thinking this would be easy.

 _“Iwa-chan! It's almost midnight!”_ Ah. Oikawa's voice went through his head. _"God, I want to be with Iwaizumi forever!"_

He wasn’t going to lose.

Iwaizumi looked around and saw a hammer. Before she could hit him once more, he grabbed the hammer and hit her head, knocking her down. She was bleeding.

Even so, she smiled.

“Ah~! Iwa-chan, you really are something else!”

He felt his blood run cold. She knew him.

"No wonder Tooru-kun likes you..." A-cchi tried to get up but eventually spit blood. Iwaizumi stood up, as much pain as his leg and abdomen felt. “As much as I confessed to him, he rejected me. Always, every time! Unfair! I'm the one who deserves to be with him, no one else! Not even you!” She got up again and ran toward him. Iwaizumi just had time to hit the hammer in her face.

She fell back, this time unconscious.

Ah. I have to finish with her...

He looked at the hammer in his hands. It already had so much blood. He hit her again with it, this time definitely.

_"God, don't say anything to Tooru, but I want to be with him forever too…”_

***

The lights went out when Yaku reached the kitchen.

He felt something tug at his leg and he fell, being dragged to the trapdoor, no matter how hard he tried to let go. _No, no! I have to go back to Lev's side!_

"Let me go!"

He shifted his legs to free himself.

But it ended up in someone's arms and felt a sting in the neck.

 _Ah… What a familiar feeling…,_ Yaku fell asleep.

When he woke up, he was sitting in a chair with a knife in his hand.

In front of him, also sitting in a chair, tied with ropes, was a girl with long black hair. Her mouth was covered, and she was looking at him, scared, terrified.

 _But why… Ah… I remembered… They want me to kill this girl…_ , Yaku rubbed his eyes, trying to remember who had brought him there.

He rose from his chair and she grunted in fear. B-chan. She was B-chan, wasn't she? He approached her and took the cloth from her mouth.

"W-What are you going to do with me?!"

Yaku didn't know. Yaku couldn't stand seeing blood, much less provoke it. But if he didn't kill that girl, Lev could end up in a game that could end his life.

And he promised to prevent such a thing.

"I don't want to do this, but I have to kill you-"  
"What are you saying?!" she asked, trying to break free of the ropes. “You are speaking as you were being obliged, but I saw you! That man looked at you with too much affection! He wouldn't make you do anything! ”

 _That man? What man?_ Yaku asked. His head started to hurt. Who was she talking about? Why did she just turn pale? Where is she looking-

One shot.

A hole in her forehead.

Blood splattered on Yaku's face.

Too much blood, too much blood.

Yaku didn't look where the shot came from. He knew who was there. His vision was distorted, he couldn't take his eyes off B-chan's horrified face.

He felt someone's hand on his head. Someone was patting his head.

"You've grown well, Morisuke."

Yaku fainted.

When Yaku woke up, he was lying on the living room floor of his house. He sat up and rubbed his head. _It was a dream? It seemed too real..._

He noticed a movement in the living room door and looked, scared like a cat.

He saw his mother.

"Mom…?"  
“Mori-chan, are you up yet? You were sleeping so well, I didn't even want to wake you up...”

There was something wrong.

His mother came into the room and Yaku noticed the knife in her hand. He turned away from her.

"M-Mom, why do you have a knife?"  
"Oh, it's for cooking."

There was something wrong. Very wrong. Ah, this must be a dream! No, a nightmare-

"Mori-chan, don't be afraid of me," she said, raising the knife. She attacked him, but he managed to dodge. "Or have you forgotten that I'm your mother?"  
"M-Mom, please..."

She attacked him again and he fled into the hallway. There was no entrance door. Not even the stairs to upstairs. _Fuck this nightmare!_

Yaku, in a quick thought, ran to the kitchen. He felt the adrenaline rush through his veins, a steady, rapid heartbeat. Inside of his head, he prayed to this nightmare to end up. He just wanted to return to his routine, to college, to the deadlines, hell, he would confess to Lev if needed! He just wanted to wake up and forget about everything!

He tried to open the door, but nothing. He tried and tried until he noticed that the door didn't even move. It was a fake door.

Yaku's breath got heavy. Maybe he still had time to escape to the bathroom-

He felt a presence behind him.

She was behind him.

There was no time.

Yaku turned, eye to eye. His mother's eyes were beautiful, he remembered being fascinated with them when he was younger. But her eyes were cold right now, without her kindness. Why he is dreaming about her, in such ugly way?

His mother attacks him again, but he bends down. The knife slammed against the fake door. It was the opportuni-

She clutched his neck with such inhuman force. It hurted like hell, and he couldn’t breathe.

This wasn’t a dream. This wasn’t a nightmare.

This was the reality.

But it was impossible. His mother would never do that.

"M-Mom… I’m sorry, I’m sorry…" He murmured tearfully as he tried to pull her away from him. Her hand was cold. Too cold. He remembered that his mother's hands were warm…  
"Don't be afraid, Mori-chan," she said. “Your mother and father are always watching over you.”

The knife came to meet his abdomen and Yaku screamed in pain. In an act of despair, he kicked his mother. She fell, but her hand was still on his neck.

No. He saw with revulsion that her arm had unhinged itself from her shoulder, and was hanging limply over him.

This wasn’t his mother. It was a robot.

“Mori-chan…” Her voice changed. It wasn’t his mother's voice. It was a cold, and robotic voice. "Don't be mean to your mother..."  
"You aren’t my mother!" Yaku stood, as its arm fell on the floor, and with his hand on his wound. Ah… blood. A lot of blood. He hated blood.

But he hated more the fact someone used his dear mother's face and tortured him like that. Ignoring the pain, he jumped onto the robot and picked up the knife from the floor. He hit it several times, swallowing the guilty feeling of destroying his mother's face.

The robot didn't seem to work anymore. He did it. He won this stupid game.

Yaku fell to the ground, feeling exhausted. He noticed that he was crying. Maybe because of the pain, or maybe knowing he would never see his mother again. Or his father.

He had been left in that world alone.

 _I wonder if they are really watching over me…_ , Yaku closed his eyes. _It’s all his fault… Ah… I’m taller than my mom now, huh…?_

***

Hinata wondered what had happened while he slept. Both Bokuto and Sugawara had their arms bandaged, Iwaizumi was being treated by Akaashi while Oikawa whined beside him, Kenma didn't take his eyes off a television that was apparently filming Kuroo's room, and Daishou tried to reassure him, to say, that Kuroo must be fine, and Lev, along with Sugawara and Tsukishima, paced to see if they found Yaku.

A confusion.

"Hey, Shouyou-kun," Atsumu approached him, along with Osamu, who had a plate of onigiri. "Are ya better?"  
"Yes."  
"Do ya want to eat?" Osamu asked, holding out his plate.

Hinata felt his stomach clatter, a sign that yes, he wanted to eat. He took one of the onigiri and ate it. The twins smiled at each other.

"Ah!" Kenma exclaimed, rising from the stool he'd brought in front of the television. "The police..."

Everyone stared at the television. There were two policemen in Kuroo's room, along with his father, clearly worried. _Kuro was still living with his father… He must have noticed that he was missing…_ Kenma bit his lip, frustrated that they couldn't hear anything they were talking about.

For mere seconds, though, Kenma sensed that one of the cops had looked straight into the camera hidden in the stuffed cat and smiled. Kenma shivered. It couldn't be... Maybe it had been his imagination, tiredness was already playing pranks on his mind.

Lev rushed into the room, with Yaku in his arms.

“I found Yaku-san!”  
"How is his wound?" Akaashi quickly approached.  
"Oh, about that… I think someone has already dealt with it."

Akaashi checked and, in fact, under Yaku's new t-shirt, he had bandages.

"Maybe it was the man with the cat mask?" Bokuto pondered, referring to the man who had appeared behind Yaku and killed B-chan. "Is he the Voice?"  
"I doubt the Voice would ever be filmed," Daishou intervened, not looking away from the television. "Anyone on the team?"  
"The most probable..."  
"Do you think he knows Yaku-san?" Lev asked, without much ceremony.

As much as Lev hated the idea of Yaku killing someone because of him, it was strange that it was that man killing B-chan, if the order was for Yaku… Maybe it was a way to force Yaku to fight that robot...

But something told Lev that Yaku knew him.

"Hm… Lev," Kenma called. “There were rumors of a yakuza-looking man who walked around our school, right?”  
"Ah, I remember that."  
"Seems to be him."  
"Oi, oi, are you saying yakuza is involved in this?" Oikawa asked, grabbing one of the pillows.  
"It was just rumors..."  
"...-nii..."  
"Yaku-san?"

Yaku opened his eyes, waking up for the fourth time that day. That wasn’t healthy at all. He recalled that he had dreamed about playing hero figures as a child. Yaku looked into Lev's face, who was clearly worried about him. Then he noticed that he was in his arms.

"Ah, it's another dream..." he yawned.  
"This isn’t a dream, Yaku-san."  
"Hm?"

Yaku reviewed the situation again. If that really wasn't a dream, then... He was really in Lev's arms. He felt the blood rushing to his cheeks and shifted to get rid of Lev, but stopped when he felt a stab of pain in his abdomen. _Oh, that wasn't a dream either…_

"Are you okay?!"  
"How about you put me down?!"

Lev did as he was asked.

"Don't push yourself," Akaashi asked.

Bokuto looked at Akaashi. You shouldn't force yourself either… He knew Akaashi was starting to wear out. Ah, if he hadn’t injured his arm, he would be massaging him, as he did when Akaashi returned from internship. _It's difficult to maintain rationality in these situations…_

"I'm fine," Yaku assured. He noticed the new television. "Hey, isn't that-"  
"Yes," for the first time, Kenma looked away from the television. His gaze seemed to be full of sorrow and something else that made Yaku shiver. "It's Kuro's room."


	6. Hidden in the dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!
> 
> Yes, I know, I do take a lot to update something that is already written, but you know? I wasn't vibing.
> 
> Anyway, how is the quarantine? I hope you all are okay!
> 
> This chapter there's some tea that you need to know! >:3
> 
> I hope you have a nice reading!

Kenma didn't leave the front of the television again. He watched the movements of the cops, looking for clues in Kuroo's room. _His bed is undone… He always makes the bed…_ , he thought, rubbing his eyes. He was tired, he wanted to take a nap, but the cops could find a clue, any clue that could save them, that could save Kuroo.

He smelled coffee and, for a moment, thought it was Kuroo who was by his side, giving the usual coffee when he used to spend the night at Kuroo's house. But it wasn’t him. He looked at Daishou, who was smiling in that annoying way (or maybe everything was annoying to Kenma at that time).

"You like sweet coffee, don't you?" Daishou asked, sitting next to Kenma, who arched an eyebrow.

"How…?"

"A cat told me," Daishou replied, making Kenma remember that even he and Kuroo hang out together from time to time. “Don't look at me like that, I didn't force him to say anything. He's the one with the big mouth,” or maybe not, maybe it was him who had a big mouth, as he was talking about how cute Mika was and that she liked sweet coffee, and that’s why Kuroo told him about it.

"Does he talk about me a lot?"

"Yeap," Daishou drank from his own coffee. "It gets annoying, sometimes."

"Does he also talk about..." Kenma interrupted himself and shook his head. "Forget it," and drank from his coffee. It was exactly as Kuroo did. "It’s good..."

Daishou was curious what Kenma was going to say, but thought it was best to not to ask anything. He looked at Eita, who was seeing if there was anything behind other paintings.

The picture before him was beautiful, the painting of a starry sky. And behind of it was a safe box.

“I found a safe box…” Eita looked at them. “None of you saw a code out there, did you?”

"Nope..." Kenma replied. "What... What do you think is in there?"

“Um… maybe another clue to the secrets?” Daishou asked, rubbing his neck. “This house has too many surprises. It can even be a trap.”

“Isn't there a clue on the painting…?”

Eita looked at the painting. There was nothing written behind it, not even on the frame. Nothing but the painting itself. _Stars, huh…_ Honestly, Eita already missed looking at the sky. He missed his friends too. It was lonely to see the others having strong connections because of teamwork while he was… alone. _Again_.

"Semi?"

"Oh, I can't find anything," he answered quickly. "Do you want to have a look?"

"Oh, sure."

Daishou got up and approached Eita to see the painting.

"Have you ever thought what secrets others have?" Kenma asked. "We should try to find out who owns the secrets..."

"Well, I think that's the point of… this mess, but..." Daishou began, looking at the stars of the painting. He tried to identify the constellation it represented (if it was one, and not an artist's invention), but failed. “Exposing secrets is bad… I wouldn't want anyone to find out mine. The same can be said for you, right?”

"Ah yes..."

“And it's not like we had a lot of clues, other than what happened to Lev… Maybe Yaku, Hinata… And, well, me,” Eita continued, not very comfortable.

"Iwaizumi is strangely protective of Oikawa," Daishou commented, trying to divert the conversation. "Oh, and Sugawara knows a lot, maybe he's a blackmailer."

“He looks a good person-”

“ _We all_ look like good people,” Kenma intervened.

Eita muttered a “ _touché_ ”, but was relieved to see that Kenma had stopped watching the television.

Kenma stared at the television as the lights suddenly went out. He held his breath and listened to the sounds of his surroundings.

Daishou and Eita were quiet, fearing being grabbed and taken to those bizarre and dangerous rooms.

But there was no movement.

"Hey, are you all right?" Sugawara asked, feeling the walls hoping to not to hit anything in the dark. Again, the urge to hit the architect of that house returned. This was what happened when there were no windows: total darkness.

"Yes," Eita replied.

"Dont’cha tell me this is a game?" Atsumu wondered, in one of the bedrooms. He didn’t want to risk moving. "The naughty type-" he interrupted himself with a grunt. "Samu! Ya didn’t need t’hit me!"

"Heh, ya totes deserved it."

"I swear if I’m seeing any mark…!"

"Don't argue," Iwaizumi warned.

_Oh yes, Iwaizumi, you can really talk_ , Sugawara thought. He wished he had said it out loud, but that would only create more friction. _Next time I’ll say it._

"I think it was a blackout. The fridge stopped-" Hinata stumbled up the stairs and fell. "Ouch…!"

"Hinata, are you ok?!" Akaashi asked, following immediately by the sound of a breaking glass. Akaashi had hit one of the furniture. "Ah, shit. Bokuto-san, don't move. There's scattered pieces, I think."

"I knew that letting Hinata go upstairs would just create problems," Tsukishima commented, going back to the kitchen.

"I'm fine, thanks for the concern, Tsukishima!"

Tsukishima rolled his eyes before entering the kitchen. He knew there was a table in the middle of the kitchen. He had to go left so as to not to hit anything, very slowly. If he remembered correctly, next to the stove was the lighter. Yaku and Sugawara used it to make the food, didn't they? Candles… There should be some in the storage room drawers. He wondered if he could walk into the storage room with the lighter lit…

Well, he will think about that later, first he had to find the lighter and pray he didn't break his glasses trying to walk in the dark.

After feeling the kitchen sink and nearly cutting himself off with a knife lost in that pitch, Tsukishima found the lighter. It let out a few sparks before he could light it; Tsukishima's eyes hurt at the sudden light, but he eventually got used to it.

Now he could go to the storage room to look for candles.

***

The storage room could make anyone claustrophobic. In addition to being sparse, it had huge boxes and wasn’t that organized. It was a contrast between the rest of the house, which had been rigorously planned for this game.

The lighter's flame went out and Tsukishima lit it again after a few attempts; he wondered how people could light up lighters so easily.

Careful to not to set anything on fire, Tsukishima began to search in the drawers and boxes for candles.

Although a flashlight would be better.

Tsukishima stopped moving. He had the feeling that he had heard something moving.

The darkness and the silence intimidated him. As much as he wanted to say 'no', he was afraid.

Too much fear.

It was like those days when Kei would hide in Akiteru's room whentheir father was home, arguing with their mother.

At those times, Akiteru made him listen to music to calm him down.

But Tsukishima didn't have his cell phone or headphones to listen to music.

Not even his brother to calm him down.

"Nii-chan…"

Tsukishima bit his lip. He couldn't weaken. Surely that movement had been his imagination.

It _had_ to be his imagination.

He continued to search for candles, ignoring any noise his mind was making. He mentally hummed one of his brother's songs. All to drown out the sound of his paranoia.

Like in those days when he thought his father would come into his room in the middle of the night if he had a grade slightly below what his father wanted. If the songs didn't work, then he'd run to his brother's bed and sleep with him.

_Nii-chan, help me…_

A box fell due to Tsukishima movement. He looked startled, as if his father were there. When he saw it wasn't him, he sighed with relief.

He looked inside the box. Flashlights. He took one and turned it on. Light!

He put out the lighter and put it in the box. Now with more light, he wondered if he should find the candles…

He chose to look, after all, the more lights the better. After several searched drawers, he found some candles.

***

"I wonder how long we'll be without electricity," Akaashi said, throwing away the pieces of glass from the broken jar.

Before that, he had taken a look at Hinata to see how his condition was. He looked fine, but in the dim light…

"I don't know," Tsukishima replied. “How long has it been? Half an hour?"

"Maybe!" Bokuto joined the conversation as he made simple figures with the shadow of his good hand. Hinata did the same with both hands. “I have a feeling even the cameras have stopped working. I don’t longer feel observed!”

"Bokuto-san, be careful with your arm..."

"I've been careful, Akaashi.~"

Tsukishima wondered if what Bokuto had said was true. He hated to feel their eyes on him, but he couldn't say much. _It’s the karma_.

"Hey, Tsukishima, are you ok?"

"Hm?" Tsukishima looked at Hinata, who was still playing with the shadows. "Why are you asking that?"

"Hey, just for worry!" Hinata stopped his hands and looked at him. “You've been down since you and Yamaguchi stopped being friends.”

Both Bokuto and Akaashi looked surprised at Tsukishima. They remembered how close Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were and they weren’t expect that. Tsukishima merely looked at Hinata angrily but, above all, sad.

"How about you don’t talk about it?" He got up and left the kitchen.

And Hinata knew he had screwed up.

Honestly, he didn't know why their friendship ended. Hinata knew that Yamaguchi was angry with Tsukishima and, no matter how much he asked him to be forgiven, Yamaguchi seemed unwilling to give a second chance.

Neither Yamaguchi nor Tsukishima seemed willing to explain the situation, but no one had dared to ask anything, because, with so many years of them being friends, they thought that they would both make up quickly.

But no.

A year had passed, and they barely exchanged words. A worrying situation for the former members of Karasuno.

Hinata knew that deep down, even deep down, Yamaguchi wanted to make up, but something seemed to prevent him from doing so.

_Well…,_ Hinata thought, _at least it seems that Tsukishima is afraid of losing another friendship._

***

Daishou stared at the picture using the flashlight. Maybe the blackout was for them to find some clue on the board…

Not that he was finding anything.

“Oh, isn't there a lemon technique? Invisible ink, wasn’t it?” Daishou asked, pointing the flashlight at his face.

"Yes! There is! ”Oikawa exclaimed, and looked at Iwaizumi. “I sent you so many love letters and you never found out!”

“Wh- what?! Those blank papers?!”

"Oh, have you ever wondered what would have happened if you had been clever, Iwaizumi?~" Sugawara teased, knowing that he was at a safe distance and that Iwaizumi wouldn’t run after him with his injured leg.

“Why you…!”

“Iwa-chan!”

“Uh, honestly, I don't care about what you're talking about, but can we focus on this painting? Thank you,” Daishou interrupted them, placing the painting over one of the candles.

"Be careful to not to burn it."

Daishou looked at Tsukishima who had just returned to the room, but then looked back at the painting. No new marks. There was no invisible ink there.

"Hey, Glasses-kun!"

"My name is Tsukishima."

"Yeah, sure," Daishou smiled. “You are smart, aren't you? Do you know what constellation this is? The alien fanboy doesn't know.”

“Hey! My name is Oikawa Tooru! ”Oikawa exclaimed. "Actually, I'm absolutely sure that this constellation doesn't even exist."

Tsukishima approached and took the painting. He knew some constellations, perhaps too few, but those stars didn’t belong to any constellation.

"I don't know any constellation like that."

"So it must be invented."

"Bitch, I said that before," Oikawa complained. If it wasn’t for the nearby candles, he would have thrown a pillow at Daishou.

"How many numbers does the code have?" Tsukishima asked, ignoring Oikawa's complaints.

"Four numbers," Eita replied. “We haven't tried any code yet, maybe there’s a trap if we get it wrong…”

"You better not try until you are sure then," Tsukishima suggested.

***

Kenma was sure it had been nearly two hours when the electricity returned. Those two hours had been… minimally interesting to Kenma. He hadn’t taken much interest in what others said; he was only worried about Hinata who had a tense atmosphere around Tsukishima. Something had happened.

But Kenma couldn’t say anything. He couldn’t bring himself to talk to Hinata.

He was afraid he was getting into something he shouldn't have; and his head was already full of thoughts about Kuroo.

He just wanted to get out of there, was that too much to ask?

When the light came back, everyone sighed with relief, but tensed to hear the damn sound of the Voice.

"This is the Voice," they announced, in that mechanical sound. “Sorry for the blackout, unforeseen things happened. We had to eliminate a mouse,” the Voice informed. Everyone looked at each other. What did that mean…? “But it's all settled. But – as you can imagine – I'm in a bad mood. So, you're going to play a little game,” they felt the skin crawl… If so far the Voice was in a good mood… What could happen? “Do you like puzzles? This one will be unforgettable. The _pieces_ are scattered throughout the mansion. On the secret room table, there’s a list of the pairs I want them to collaborate. Good luck. This is all for now."

Again, they looked at each other.

"What... what kind of puzzle will it be...?" Hinata dared to ask. Again he felt his stomach turn over.

"I don't know," Lev answered and walked into that room. There was a table there, and on top was a piece of paper, as the Voice had said. Lev took the paper and left the room as quickly as possible; maybe the ground could fall again…

He looked at the list and, then, showed it to the others.

**_Akaashi Keiji & Tsukishima Kei_ **

**_Bokuto Koutarou & Miya Osamu_ **

**_Daishou Suguru & Iwaizumi Hajime_ **

**_Haiba Lev & Semi Eita_ **

**_Hinata Shouyou & Miya Atsumu_ **

**_Kozume Kenma & Yaku Morisuke_ **

**_Sugawara Koushi & Oikawa Tooru_ **

"Okay! Let's go to this! ”Bokuto exclaimed, trying to cheer everyone up. He looked at Akaashi and smiled at him. “Samu, let's go downstairs. How about the library?”

"Uh," Atsumu intervened. “If we are looking for puzzle pieces, the library is too big for just two people.”

"Do you want to come with us, Sumu?" Bokuto asked.

“I think one of Voice's goals is to separate the usual pairs,” Yaku commented.

"If so, why are you and Kenma together?" Daishou asked, looking at the list. “You are the only pair who were from the same team.”

"Uh, I don't know..." Yaku replied, looking at Kenma.

Kenma, however, didn’t look at him. _The Voice must have noticed…,_ he thought as he looked at the still-off television.

"Well!" Bokuto exclaimed again, drawing attention to himself. "Sumu, Hinata, you are coming with us to the library!"

The group continued to discuss where each pair should go, and once decided, they began to separate and each pair went to a corner of the mansion.

Iwaizumi, however, looked at the list, as if making sure it was for real, and then at Sugawara who merely smiled, as if he were a pesky child preparing a prank. Oikawa laughed dryly, he figured the Voice knew well what they were doing in forming these pairs.

"Iwa-chan, don't worry, I won't cheated on you!" Oikawa warned jokingly, though he was telling the truth.

"Don't worry Iwaizumi, I don't mess with married people~!"

"Suga-chan, that doesn't help anything!"

Sugawara showed his tongue to Oikawa.

"Hit him if necessary," Iwaizumi said only in that.

"Hey, I would never hurt Suga-chan," Oikawa said, but immediately looked at Sugawara, knowing full well what he could say. "Don't even open your mouth if you want to continue living."

"Awn, you _know_ me so well, Oikawa!"

Iwaizumi bit his lip and grabbed Daishou, leaving before he jumped to Sugawara's neck

"Oh my God, Suga-chan, don't play with fire."

"But it's fun to see him like that," Sugawara confided. He looked at his arm and then at Oikawa's knee. "Eh, I should be able to hold you in my arms."

“Don't even try, you've got a broken arm. By the way, how did you break your arm?”

"I don't know," Sugawara shrugged. “I woke up with it broken. No, wait, maybe that was when I was trying to break free of a chair?”

Oikawa tried to get up from the couch, but ended up sitting in pain.

"Suga-chan, lend me your shoulder," he pleaded, gesturing with his hand for the other to approach.

"Oh sure."

He approached Oikawa and try to take him in his arms, but Oikawa stopped him, warning again about the broken arm. Sugawara merely smiled and helped him to his feet.

“You really have to stop belittling your body,” Oikawa commented.

"Uh~ I don't know what you're talking about, Oikawa.~"

"Bitch."

_You're always diverting the subject,_ Oikawa thought as he passed the bedroom door.

"You have to be-" Oikawa broke off as he felt a liquid falling on his face. He made Sugawara stop; for some reason, Oikawa noticed that he looked pale. He touched his cheek and then looked down at his fingers.

That was blood.

They both looked up. Another drop, this time on Sugawara's forehead.

_An arm._

_The puzzle piece was a fingerless arm._


	7. Luck will say if you are dead or alive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, hi!
> 
> Here I am with a new chapter. Thank you so much for still reading this fanfic and for all the support you gave me! I'm really thankfull.
> 
> For this chapter, I need to alert that there's non-descriptive vomiting. And, well, I guess gore and blood, but that something you all knew xD
> 
> Have a nice reading!

To be honest, Akaashi wanted to have gone to investigate the storage room, but Tsukishima seemed uncomfortable with the idea, so they ended up with the kitchen.

Tsukishima began rummaging through the kitchen cabinets while Akaashi arranged the rug. Someone opened the trapdoor and Akaashi didn't want to think about it, as the trapdoor was locked again.

"Hey, Tsukishima," Akaashi called, but Tsukishima didn't seem to have heard him. "Tsukishima?" He touched the other's shoulder, who turned immediately.

"Sorry, I didn't hear you," Tsukishima looked jumbled, which made Akaashi raise an eyebrow.

"Were you thinking of something?"

"Nothing important."

"You can-"

"AKAASHI!"

Akaashi looked at the door, where Bokuto was, clearly pale.

“There’s- There’s-” Bokuto tried to find the best words, but he couldn't. He didn't understand what the hell was going on. He was trying to not to panic. "A body. An abdomen. Scattered organs. Hinata is throwing up a lot, I- Akaashi, what should I do?”

"Calm down, Bokuto-san, breathe slowly" Akaashi approached him, who was trying to catch up his breath. “Tsukishima, can you prepare a glass of sugar water? In fact, prepare several. I guess this puzzle will make us sick...”

"Oh, right."

Before leaving the kitchen, Akaashi smiled at Bokuto, a subtle way of saying that he was proud of him. He hurried to get towels from the downstairs bathroom to clean Hinata and try to calm him down.

Tsukishima went to the fridge to fetch the sugar, but as soon as he opened it, he closed it again almost immediately.

It was brief, but he was sure he saw a jar with fingers inside.

He felt his stomach turn over.

***

"Hinata, are you better?" Akaashi asked, wiping his face. Hinata shook his head negatively.

"W-Who...?" Hinata stammered, unable to speak anymore. He was pale, which was expected.

"I don't know," Akaashi replied. He had no way of knowing, because he had not yet seen the body. He watched the twins, who were sitting on the stairs, clearly affected by what they saw as well. “Are you all right? Do you need something?”

Osamu took a deep breath before answering with his head; no, they weren’t okay. Atsumu was visibly more nervous, scratching his wrists – which worried Osamu.

"Tsumu, stop with that..."

Osamu's request made Atsumu stop what he was doing; he didn't even noticed what he was doing. The images of that came back to mind; the library floor was smeared with blood, the organs were scattered at a random way, but the worst – the worst was the intense smell of fresh blood. That person had died a few hours ago.

They... They could end up like that person. Dead. Cutted into pieces, like meat in the butcher's shop.

"Tsumu."

Atsumu looked at Osamu, who was in front of him. He was grabbing his hands, which made Atsumu's eyes widen – since when Osamu was grabbing his hands?

“Nothin’ll happen to ya,” Osamu assured; Atsumu sketched a smile.

"Thanks."

As soon as he made sure Atsumu was even calmer, Osamu let his hands go.

"Akaashi, what’ll we do with… the body?" Osamu asked.

“I think we have to put it all together and try to figure out who it is…?”

"Have you found the head yet?" Sugawara asked as he came down the stairs. Akaashi noticed that his clothes were bloody. "Up here we found two arms, one without a hand and one with no fingers, and a leg."

"The fingers are in the fridge," Bokuto exclaimed from the kitchen door. "Tsukki refuses to open it."

"The torso’s in the library..." Atsumu said. “The organs are scattered…”

"I found a hand in the towel cabinet," Akaashi said, which made Hinata widen his eyes. “I got this one from down, don't- Hinata, no- Don't puke again! Don't think about it, Hinata!”

"I- I'm fine!"

Lev and Eita came out of the storage room with something wrapped in a piece of cloth. By the size, the others assumed it was the other leg. Both were pale.

“We found a leg...”

"That is, we don't have a head," Sugawara walked to the kitchen. He wanted to go see how Tsukishima was doing. “How will we find out who was this person…?”

***

  
  


"Oh my god," Sugawara said as he looked at the jar inside the fridge. "There's a fucking penis here."

Hearing this, Tsukishima felt his stomach turn again.  _ The idea of being deaf doesn't seem so bad now, _ he thought. His ears even hurt when he heard that, now that he thought.

Sugawara took the jar without looking at it. Tsukishima looked away and started to leave the kitchen, but Bokuto was standing in the doorway, looking at Akaashi.

"Hey, Tsukki, I'm worried."

"Sorry?"

"Akaashi..." Bokuto looked at Tsukishima; his tone was lower than usual. Worry was painted on his face. “He is trying too hard.”

"Ah... He is the only one who has professional medical knowledge..." Tsukishima commented, despite knowing that Akaashi was still taking the course. By the way why did he have to be hearing that if Bokuto could stop Akaashi with just one sentence? "Tell him to stop."

"I told him," Bokuto sighed. “Kenma too. But he insists on continuing.”

"Oh."

"In fact, he's been this way since he started the course..." Bokuto bit his lip. "And I can't convince him to take breaks."

"Is he punishing himself?" Sugawara asked, joining in the conversation.

Tsukishima looked at Sugawara and then at the table. The jar was covered with a cloth, yet he felt sick.

"Why would he do that...?" Bokuto asked.

"Maybe he believes he deserves punishment for something he's done," he continued, smiling. “I think we all think so, to be honest. And I dare say that includes you, Bokuto,” he said, pointing to the other's arm.

***

"█████-senpai, what are we doing here?" █████ asked, looking around for any strange movement. “Just because you're helping the police in this case doesn't mean we should act alone- Actually, why  _ I’m _ here?”

"Today's horror story is called, 'The Voice'," █████ looked at █████; his smile tore across his face macabrely. █████ felt her blood run cold. “The Voice knows everything; she hears everything, she sees everything. Voice’s orders are absolute. She has control of her pawns; they do everything she wants, inside a guarded house… You can see what's going at a dark web stream, in a corner where everything is possible on the internet. But…” █████ approached █████, who was paralyzed with fear. “What happens if someone in the audience tells what's going on inside to the police? What could happen to such little rat, who dared to raise his little voice against the powerful Voice?”

***

Akaashi looked at the body; that puzzle was incomplete. The most important piece was missing, the one that would indicate who that person was; the head.

But Akaashi felt that the purpose of that puzzle wasn’t to find out who that person was. There, hidden in its abdomen, was something wrapped in a cloth that had once been white, but now it was brownish red, dried blood.

"What's this...?" Bokuto asked; no one else was there, that was too much for the others.

"I don’t know-"

"This is the Voice," they said. “Meet in the room; let's play another game. Akaashi Keiji, Bokuto Koutarou, please bring the surprise you found in the puzzle. No peeking.~”

They both looked at each other. Akaashi took the object out, feeling nauseous as he looked at the blood on his hand. But he forgot about it by feeling the shape of it. No... It couldn't be...

Akaashi gave Bokuto another look. And Bokuto understood that this wasn’t going be a good thing.

They both went into the living room and Akaashi set the mysterious object on the table, fetching something to clean up. Yaku looked away; the blood reminded him of B-chan's horrified face.  _ He... He was there, wasn't he? _

“For this game, only four players will participate; and they are: Kozume Kenma, Miya Atsumu, Semi Eita and Tsukishima Kei.”

The four looked at each other; the anxiety began to bloom through their veins. What kind of game will the Voice want...?

"Can someone unwrap the surprise?"

Iwaizumi, who was closest, did what they asked. Everyone's eyes widened at the sight of a gun.

“You must already know what you're going to play, right?” They knew the Voice was smiling. “It's the Russian roulette; the rules are simple. The audience will choose the first player and that player will have to shoot in the mouth.”

"Hey, hey-" Atsumu intervened. That couldn’t be real. "This can kill one of us and-"

"Don't worry Miya Atsumu," the Voice laughed. “Just get lucky. Now… Let the voting begin!”

***

The sound alerted the end of the voting; television began to show the votes being counted. Atsumu watched in horror at the number of votes that were accumulating in his favor – or was it against him? Honestly, he couldn't believe in his luck anymore – if the votes revealed that he was the one to play, then the bullet would be ready to cross his head.

_ Everybody hates me. Everyone wants me dead; but I already knew that. _

The countdown is over. And Atsumu laughed dryly at the 41% flashing on television, as if he had won the lottery. He approached the table and took the gun; he made a disgusted face at the smell of blood on it.  _ Well, this will also shed my blood. _

"Hey, Tsumu, don't do that-" Osamu tried to take the gun from him, but Atsumu merely dodged.

"The Voice wants a little show, don't they?" Atsumu commented, wiping the tip of the gun.

"What if you die?!" Hinata asked, his tone altered.

"So, I just had no luck," he shrugged. Osamu's eyes widened.

"Tsumu, don't even try-"

Atsumu put the gun on his mouth and closed his eyes before pulling the trigger. He began to cough heavily as he choked on whatever liquid the gun threw into his throat. The gun fell to the floor, and he crouched down, his body twitching in surprise. Osamu and Akaashi approached immediately.

"W-what the fuck?!" Atsumu exclaimed, between coughing fits. “A water gun?!”

No one had checked that the pistol was real. No one had thought of that probability. It just looked real and yet.

The Voice had deceived them; the fear made them believe lies and manipulations. They were dancing in their hand like mere puppets.

"Tsumu, you'd better throw up, maybe it has poison and-"

Osamu shivered as he looked into Atsumu's eyes. He seemed to be in a trance, without any reaction.

“Tsumu?! Hey, Tsumu, are you ok?!”

Atsumu didn't answer. Instead, he got up and walked to the bathroom. Osamu followed, but Atsumu closed the door and locked it.

Osamu had a bad feeling.

“Tsumu, open the door! Tsumu!” Osamu tried to open the door, slamming it at the same time. "Answer me! Tsumu! Please!"

He heard objects falling inside.

_ No no no no....! Don't do it! _

Osamu decided he had to open that door no matter how. He used his own body to try to break down the door.

"Osamu, stop it!" Eita warned, grabbing the other. Osamu looked at him, frustrated that he had been stopped. “You will dislocate your shoulder; kick the fucking door!”

"Hey, hey, hey, let me help!"

“Bokuto-san, your arm…!”

"We have an urgency here, Akaashi!"

"Oh, don't even think about going, Iwa-chan, look at your leg- And you too, Suga-chan, stay still!"

Everyone fell silent as they heard the mirror shatter, which made Osamu freak out even more.

He started kicking the door over and over and over and over until the door gave way and hit the wall hard.

Red.

Blood is red.

Atsumu's blood is red.

"Tsumu!"

Osamu ran to Atsumu's body; blood slid down his arms, spewing from the new cuts caused by the blade in Atsumu's hand, and the shards of glass like water pouring from the spring's fountain. Osamu knew that he had to stop it from turning into a river, something too big to be stopped.

But all he could do was crying, mumbling his brother's name, and other, perhaps incoherent, loose phrases as he held him in his arms, as if lulling him to sleep, though all Osamu wanted was for Atsumu to open his eyes.

"Please don't leave me- Don't leave me, Tsumu..."

Akaashi looked at Atsumu's wounds and widened his eyes as he noticed that there were various old scars on both arms. Suddenly he remembered that he had never seen his arms; in fact, he had sweatbands, didn't he? Where were they? No matter how many questions he had, he decided to not to comment, certainly an extremely sensitive topic. He merely took the glasses off and treated the cuts while Osamu repeatedly asked for Atsumu to wake up, or apologized for something he had done in the past, and kissed Atsumu's sleeping cheeks in sheer despair and regrets.

***

█████ was looking at the list in her hand. It was the list of players' secrets. Honestly, she didn't even know why she was involved in that. █████-senpai always dragged her in some way into those unbelievable situations.

Although she was worried about them. She knew them; her brother was also a volleyball player after all.

“█████-senpai, you know one of these players is ██████████'s cousin, right?” She asked, not taking her eyes off the list. "He texted me to help to find him..."

"Well, well..." █████-senpai laughed. “We have another horror story to create.”

***

Daishou was looking at the pistol. Now that he noticed, it was even obvious that it was false.

He took it and observed the liquid it still had. That must have been a drug that had caused it. He looked at Kenma, Tsukishima and Semi. Probably something similar would have happened if it had been them.

_ Ugh, I don’t understand these things; Kuroo is studying this. _

If Kuroo were there... Maybe things would be different.

Especially because that group was so fragmented.

There were internal intrigues, there was distrust.

Because, deep down, this situation played with their minds, and at any moment they could be tortured or, worse, killed.

Like that man no one knew the identity of.

Ah, he just wanted to know how Mika was doing. He would never forgive himself if anything happened to her.

_ I hope she is safe… _


	8. In the opened inside there's...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY HEY HEY!
> 
> It's a me, Jene!
> 
> How are you doing? I'm here, updating this fanfic, totally ignoring that I have an exam on this Monday and that I still didn't start to study. Yeah, the normal. Also!!! This fanfic is almost at the 1000 hits :00000 It's my first to be so close to that number... Thank you for your support!!!
> 
> Please, have a nice reading!!!

Atsumu slept in an almost deep sleep. Akaashi treated the wounds, but feared that Atsumu had lost too much blood.

What he found strange. It had been in a short time, too short for such a thing to happen. Maybe it was the drug; he had already concluded that it was a drug that caused it. Maybe the drug made him bleed more and made him pass out.

He massaged the bridge of his nose, feeling tired. Nothing that a coffee wouldn't solve... Akaashi looked at Osamu, who was still crying, in a silence constantly interrupted by his own sobs. Otherwise, he didn’t answer or speak. Hinata was beside him, trying to calm him down, but nothing seemed to work.

Hinata could understand. If that had happened to Natsu…

He wouldn’t forgive himself. He would rather die than see his sister in such a state. He felt guilt overtake him. His little sister...

"Hinata," Akaashi called him, making him wake up from his thoughts. "I'll get some coffee... Do you want something?"

"Hm… I think Osamu would like onigiris."

"Okay."

Akaashi left the room and Hinata looked back at Osamu, who had at some point grasped Atsumu's hand in an act of calming down.

"My mother used to sing a lullaby when we were sad," Hinata whispered, beginning to hum the melody. Osamu looked away from Atsumu to him, forming a shaky smile.

“Our mother also sang that lullaby…,” Osamu muttered. "Tsumu loved her voice."

Osamu closed his eyes and remembered his mother, stroking his head, and trying to calm him down when he was a child.

" _ Shh, Samu, ‘tis fine, _ " she murmured, in her sweet voice. “ _ Tsumu is fine. I know, I know… It wasn't yer intention to hurt him… You were angry, _ ” she touched his face, wiping the tears that kept coming, amid Osamu's grunts of sadness. “ _ Sometimes ‘tis hard to control emotions, but I know ya'll get it. I know ya love yer brother and ya won’t hurt him ever again... _ ”

"I’m sorry..." Osamu muttered, not realizing he was talking, and Hinata was confused. "’Tis my fault... ‘Tis my fault he's like this..."

***

Akaashi's eyes looked heavy. Tiredness was beginning to appear on his body, like a blanket wrapped around him. Maybe he was exaggerating, maybe he was trying too hard. Bokuto had warned him that he overworked himself too much, that he get tired without any need.

But Bokuto didn't know about the feeling that crushed his heart, the memory he wanted to forget.

He looked down at his hands; they had blood. It was starting to get too frequent… He washed them, watching the water running and removing every red drop that was in them.

He dried his hands, relieved to have them cleaned again.

"Akaashi, are you ok...?" Bokuto asked, entering the kitchen. Akaashi turned himself to him and smiled.

"Of course I..."

Suddenly he felt his vision blurring, his ears muffled, his mouth dry. Realizing this, he began to feel his body sweating cold and becoming weaker.

_ Ah. _ His mind was getting darker and darker.  _ I'm going to pass out. _

Akaashi couldn't stand it and fell to the hard floor, unconscious .

***

"Akaashi!"

Bokuto rushed to Akaashi and, ignoring the pain in his arm, the pain in his arm could screw, he grasped Akaashi's still warm body. The first thing Bokuto checked was his breathing and his pulse.

He breathed a sigh of relief that they were stable. Even so, he didn't know what to do. He vaguely remembered seeing in Akaashi's notes that he couldn't shake his body to try to wake him up because… because of any reason. Bokuto didn't remember, but as long as he didn't do it, everything would be fine. Or at least that was what he wanted to believe.

_ What should I do, what should I do…? _

Bokuto paused to analyze Akaashi's body; there was no blood. With luck, he didn’t broke anything when he fell. The shirt… He should unbutton the buttons. Yes, that would make sense. So that Akaashi could breathe better.

"Hey, Akaashi, wake up, please..." Bokuto asked, unbuttoning his shirt. "Don’t leave me…!"

What else? What else? If they weren’t in this place, the most rational would be to call an ambulance.

But that wasn’t possible.

Calm down, he needed to calm down. Akaashi had told him that, to be a nurse, they had to know how to control their calm.

But that was hard for Bokuto. His heart seemed to want to explode with the pressure.

"Bokuto-san, calm down," Tsukishima approached Bokuto in a hurry. “He didn't hit his head… It's just tiredness. As you said.”

“Tsukki…!”

"Let's get him to bed."

Tsukishima started to take him to the bedroom, but Bokuto, ignoring the pain in his arm again, picked Akaashi up (Akaashi would complain if he was awake, Bokuto guessed).

The pain in his arm was nothing compared to the pain in his heart.

***

The aggressive sound of the Voice was heard.

They weren’t ready for another game. Actually, it didn’t passed a long time since what happened to Atsumu? What timing was that, right after Akaashi passed out?

"This is the Voice," the same sentence, the same affliction. “This time, I have a very special challenge. And it is only for one of you; Hinata-kun, are you ready?”

Hinata felt chills and his stomach turn. What was going to happen…?

"You have two options, Hinata-kun: or you read a letter that is in the secret room for the audience, which may or may not have some valuable information. Only the audience will hear." Hinata found that suspicious. What kind of information…? “Or, you're going to play a game like the others. Something interesting, but attention… At the moment you don't have your nurse on duty!~ So!~ What are you going to choose, Hinata-kun?”

Hinata thought of both options carefully. The game was supposed to be dangerous, but… There was something strange about the way The Voice spoke. There was something there, in the robotic, masculine sound the Voice had.

There was something that wasn’t right. Hinata knew the letter would be a trap, but it could bring valuable information… as well as merely being a bait. Actually, what do they meant that only the audience will hear? Couldn't he tell the others?

He glanced at the secret room door. It was there that Iwaizumi and Oikawa fell to downstairs. That could happen again and Hinata would be forced to play.

He had to risk it.

With determination, he walked into the room.

"Shouyou…" Hinata looked at Kenma. He was serious. "Be careful.."

Hinata merely nodded positively, and showed a confident smile. He opened the door and saw the letter.

He entered and the door closed on its own. Hinata closed his eyes, waiting for the ground to give way.

But nothing happened.

"Hinata-kun," The Voice called him and he opened his eyes. "Please read the letter."

Almost mechanically, he approached the table and picked up the letter. He opened it and, in mere seconds, felt his face lose color and his stomach turn.

"I-I don't want to say this!" He exclaimed, searching frantically for a camera. "This is no valuable information!"

Unless…

No, no, she couldn't be there. She couldn’t. How long has it been...?

Hinata began to count. Twelve years… She got… Nine years…

Oh no, no, no, no.

How could he forget...?!

"Hinata-kun, read, or you'll have to play."

That was it. That was what was wrong. He swallowed hard. Maybe he was being paranoid.

“I…” He wanted to cry in panic. He didn't want to remember that, didn't want to believe that. "I... I like you, Minami-sensei, please be my mother..."

Silence.

There was silence.

Hinata sighed with relief, it was just his paranoia-

A door opened.

And Hinata forgot how to breathe. Fear paralyzed him.

"Hinata-kun.~"

The Voice never called him by his full name.

***

"Shit, shit, shit," Sugawara muttered as he paced nervously. “Hinata has disappeared! What we can do?!"

Kenma swallowed hard. He hated not knowing what was going on. He hated it, he hated it.

Someone clapped his hands for attention. Everyone looked at Oikawa.

"For now, let's eat," he suggested.

"What, how can you think of food now?!" Sugawara exclaimed.

"Suga-chan, what is it worth to pass out from hunger?" Oikawa asked, smiling. "I'm also worried about Chibi-chan, also Tsumu-chan and Akaacchi, but we can't neglect ourselves."

"Yeah," Iwaizumi agreed (Oikawa was even surprised, maybe this was a dating privilege). "You told me that, Sugawara."

_ Yeah, I said, but you almost put a knife in my throat _ , Sugawara thought, but took a deep breath.

"You're right," he replied.

"I can take care of the food," Daishou offered. "The cooks are unavailable anyway."

"Hey, I don't-"

"You took a stab in the abdomen, don’t even start, Yaku," Daishou scolded and looked at Sugawara. "And you have a broken arm."

"Daishou, can you cook?"

“Hey, any problem with that, Lev? My Mika-chan taught me.”

_ Ah _ . Daishou thought.  _ How is she…? _

***

█████ looked anxiously at her cell phone. She was missing a class to be there. Okay, maybe that was more important. Human lives were at stake, after all.

She looked at █████-senpai, who was smiling. He was really enjoying that…

"████████, I'm sorry for the delay," ███████ said, approaching the table where she and █████-senpai were. "My parents are worried about me after my cousin's disappearance..."

"It’s okay, ████-kun!"

█████-senpai ignored the fact that ███████ hadn’t greeted him and signaled him to start talking about the situation.

"My cousin..." ███████, already seated, began to speak. There was sadness on his face. “He is an orphan. His parents were murdered in front of him.”

"Who..."

"A bloodthirsty creature," █████-senpai intervened. Both ███████ and █████ felt their blood run cold. “The couple, full of debts, wished to an entity for help, but when they broke their promise… The entity sent this creature, half cat, half human, to hunt the couple, mere little mice...”

█████ looked at ███████ and noticed that he was very pale, as if █████-senpai was right.

"How..."

"████-kun, is he right?!"

"They had debts..." ██████ confirmed, looking at his own hands. “But the bad tongues say it was the yakuza. The police ignored the case... ”

“And your cousin…?”

"He looked pretty bad," he began. “Although my parents wanted to take him to our house, he didn't want to leave his house. So my mother would send him food every week until... ”

██████ took a deep breath. He was still a child at the time, so he hadn’t understood at the time what was going on.

“My mother noticed that he received boxes of food. No one knew where they had come from,” he continued. “But he didn't touch them; he imagined where they came from and he refused to tell to others. There was someone who was paying for his fees, too. So my mother decided to stop sending food so as to not to spoil that food he received and... ”

"He refused the creature's blessing," █████-senpai concluded. "He was on the verge of death."

"I wouldn't say it was on the verge of death, but he spent two weeks in hospital because of anemia."

“Did your mother send food again…?”

"No... He started using that food."

"Oh, he has accepted the creature in his life," █████-senpai smiled again. "Accepted the blessing, or rather the poison."

***

“Hey, hey, hey! Who was it, who was it?!”

Tsukishima grunted when he heard Bokuto's noisy voice so early in the morning. His voice made his ears hurt sometimes…

"Bokuto-san, it's still early..."

That voice…  _ Akaashi-san…? _ Tsukishima opened his eyes and searched for his glasses – until he noticed that he was dangerously close to Sugawara's face. He almost hit his arm at him… He got out of bed and grabbed his glasses. He noticed the others were still sleeping and walked into the living room, where he saw Bokuto and Akaashi near the safebox…

… That was open.

"Tsukki!" Bokuto noticed him and frantically called him. "Look, look! Someone opened the safebox!”

“I can see that… who opened it?”

"We don’t know!"

"Look at your arm, Bokuto-san..."

“Oh, my bad. Anyway, Tsukki! There is nothing in there!”

"Someone must have taken what was in there," Akaashi concluded.

"Right..." Tsukishima looked at Akaashi. "Are you better?"

"Oh, yes, I am. Sorry for the scare I gave you all.”

Tsukishima was going to tell Akaashi to not to apologize, but felt sleepy and eventually yawned. What time was it….?

"Uh, my brain isn't working, I think I'll make coffee."

"Ah, it's our fault for making noise so early..."

Bokuto, understanding the indirect, apologized for the noise with a laugh – Tsukishima held on to not to grunt. He merely shook his head and went into the kitchen. When he got there, he noticed on the microwave clock: it was only six in the morning.  _ Ugh, I still had time to sleep _ , he thought.  _ Well, since I came for coffee, I can no longer go to sleep or it will be strange... _

He started making coffee, a little far from reality – the sleep was immense. As soon as he finished preparing, he smelled the coffee.  _ It’s safe _ .

***

Sugawara and Daishou were looking at the safebox, wondering how it had been opened. There were no signs of break-in, which meant that the opener knew the code.

This, coupled with the fact that the safebox was empty, raised some questions. Who opened it? What was the code? Was there something in there? If so, what?

And the one that bothered Sugawara the most, why should the person who opened the safebox keep silent? Unless…

Maybe it was something related to the person's secret.

It was most likely.

"Well," Kenma muttered, his eyes on the floor. Only Sugawara listened, watching Kenma, waiting for him to continue. "It's not the head."

"Oh right..." Sugawara agreed. There was no sign of blood in the safebox and he didn’t smell any blood or cleaning product.

Kenma glanced at Sugawara and then at the safebox. He deflected it when he noticed that Yaku was approaching the safebox.

"Oh future lawyer," Yaku called, and Daishou looked at him. “Is there any way to know the code used? Like those tricks used in police series...”

"Ah, there's the powder one!" Oikawa exclaimed.

Tsukishima raised an eyebrow; there was no point in trying to figure out the code now that the safebox was open.

When he was about to say something, the high-pitched sound was heard. Tsukishima hated that sound.

“This is the Voice. Looks like someone managed to open the safe.”

"Hey!" Sugawara exclaimed. "Where is Hinata?!"

"He's fine ~!" The Voice informed. "He's sleeping like a baby."

Sugawara didn't like that answer, but the Voice kept talking.

“Well, do you want to play detectives? Try find out who opened the safebox – for that you will need to vote; if you get it right, the culprit will be punished and you can find out his secret. If you make a mistake... He who is wrongly charged will receive a punishment and the true culprit can leave the house. With a little punishment.”

"So- The culprit will receive the punishment, no matter what the outcome?" Daishou asked.

"Exact. The punishment is for hiding what was inside the safebox,” the Voice explained. “As I am in a good mood, I will give you clues.”

The television turned on; no signal, only static, a fusion of white and black particles. Or so it seemed at first glance; there was a figure, a silhouette between the black and white.

" _ Today, a culprit will be revealed _ ," a voice from the television announced, like a television pivot, but robotic and distorted. “ _ The one who has had his life ruined by his decisions, the one who has something different from others, the one who has one or two K's in his name, the one who is turning pale right now. _ ”

The television turned off.

“Good leads, isn't it? You have half an hour to find out who did it. If you have to, ask the wolf. This is all for now!"

"Hey, what do you mean by ‘wolf’?!" Daishou asked, but received no response.

Everyone started looking at each other, not knowing what to do.

"I think... most of us have K in the name..." Sugawara commented.

"It wasn’t Oikawa," Iwaizumi intervened. "He can't even go to the bathroom without my help."

"Iwa-chan, you could have said that another way!"

"Hm… Akaashi and Bokuto were the first to find the empty safebox…" Kenma commented. "What were you doing so early?"

"Hey, what are you suggesting?!" Bokuto asked

"Bokuto-san..." Akaashi soothed Bokuto and then looked at Kenma. “I woke up first, after passing out, and saw that Bokuto-san was sleeping in his chair. Of course I woke him up to make him sleep in bed, but he was too awake and we ended up in the living room.”

"And also, the Voice didn't say it was two people!" Bokuto exclaimed, receiving a look from Akaashi to calm down. "You're suspicious too, Kenma..."

"It- It wasn’t me!"

Yaku stepped in front of Kenma, as if protecting him.

“How about thinking about the other clues? What could the culprit have different from others? ”

“Hm… maybe a different physical characteristic?” Sugawara suggested.

"You're the only one who has a beauty mark on his face," Iwaizumi pointed out and Oikawa squeezed his arm tightly.

“Iwa-chan! It wasn't Suga-chan!”

"Haha, indeed, I'm the only one, Iwaizumi, but believe me: it wasn't me."

They exchanged glances, as if about to challenge themselves to a duel.

Tsukishima sighed, feeling the tiredness coming back to his body. He just wanted to get out of there, not playing those games.


	9. Wedding in Wonderland

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helloooooooo, I'm once again posting a chapter after forgeting about this fanfic existence. Rip my memory. Recently I got obsessed in making a horror rpg game with my friends, but the obsessive episode ended and now feeling e m p t y. Still, I will still programming the game, but ya know, emptyness.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter! The last scene is one of my favourites in the whole fanfic!

“This is the Voice; it's time for the votes! Please go to the next room to vote one by one. Don’t tell who you voted; the votes are secret!”

███████ looked at the others, trying to decipher what they were thinking. He was afraid of the results. He already knew; no matter if they got it right or not, he would be punished. But at least… If they made a mistake, he could get out of there and no one would discover his secret. No one would see  _ that _ .

He felt selfish. He looked at ███████; he didn't want to leave him alone… But his secret would eventually affect him as well.

All because ███████ didn’t think about the consequences of his actions when younger.

All because he didn't know how to handle the abuse, the screaming in his memories.

He was the last to vote. And he voted for an innocent, praying that no one else would vote for that person to not to feel the guilt at his shoulders.

***

“You made a mistake!” The Voice announced. No one knew how to react to that information. “The culprit is not Kozume Kenma!”

"What?! Did you vote for me?!”

“Ah, don’t talk about your votes ~!” Voice intervened before the others could speak, trying to defend themselves. "Kozume Kenma, are you ready to comply with your punishment?"

"Punishment?! I did nothing!"

"So... How about this is not a punishment, but a way to make sure Kuroo Tetsurou is ok?"

A low play. Kenma swallowed hard. He had no choice.

“There’s a bottle in the other room,” the Voice informed. “You'll have to drink its contents. The effect of the drug is expected to last a few hours, not even a day.”

"Dru- Drug?!" Yaku questioned. "Kenma, you don't know what can happen!"

"It shouldn’t kill me."

_ And even if it kills me, it's better that it's me and not Kuro _ , he thought. _ Although I hate the idea that they end up together… _

Kenma went into the living room and saw the bottle. It was small, with a colour of red, and with a paper saying "Drink me," as if it had come from Wonderland.  _ Well, who knows what the drug will make me see. _

Without hesitation, Kenma drank the liquid.

"Kenma…?"

Kenma followed the sound of Yaku's voice and looked at him. Yaku shivered; it was as if Kenma wasn’t there, as if his consciousness had disappeared.

He stepped back instinctively to see Kenma approaching him, but to his surprise all he received was a strong hug that made him growl in pain over his wound.

“K-Kenma! That hurts!"

Kenma didn't move; he remained in that position.

"Kenma-san, are you ok...?" Lev asked, but got no answer. Not even a reaction.

"Is he alright...?" Sugawara asked, concerned.

"I don't know-" Yaku grunted again, Kenma still clutching at the wound. "Kenma, stop!"

Almost immediately, Kenma let go Yaku, like a cat startled by its owner's screams after doing something it shouldn't have. However, Kenma continued to stare into Yaku's eyes, who was starting to get uncomfortable.

Akaashi approached, wanting to see how Kenma was, but he merely hid behind Yaku. Maybe Kenma felt betrayed…?

"Yaku-san, you're bleeding!"

"Ah, the wound must have opened..."

"The first aid box is in the kitchen," Akaashi informed. "It's better to treat the wound again."

"Right..."

As soon as he started walking, Kenma went after Yaku, like a cat following its owner.

*** 

Kenma showed no emotions. He paced around the room, observing every inch of the kitchen. Every so often he would open the drawers, as if searching for something.

But Akaashi didn't have time to keep an eye on him. He was more focused on Yaku's wound which, to Akaashi's surprise, had stitches that had opened. Someone on the other side had medical knowledge.

Yaku tried to keep an eye on Kenma, but he was restless like a cat and eventually left the kitchen.

"Kenma! Come back here!"

But Kenma didn't comply with Yaku's request.

***

Atsumu was still sleeping, with no sign that he would wake up. Osamu barely left his side – only when someone forced him, using food as a decoy, he would go. He was nervous and when in this state he ate more than usual.

_ Ah, she told me to be careful _ , Osamu remembered.  _ That overeatin’ wasn't the solution to my problems. Well, she said in other way, more nicer- _

Osamu stopped his reasoning as he looked to the side. More specifically, to the wall that had the window to the other room. There was smoke.

Kenma was burning something and the flame was already intense, though small.

"What the fuck?!" He exclaimed, rising abruptly from his chair. "Hey, Kenma is burnin' somethin'! Get some water!"

Osamu saw Lev appearing in the door of the other room and led Kenma away from the fire; he let himself go, like a lifeless doll, unlike Lev, who was nervous.

Daishou soon appeared, rushed and alarmed, with a bucket of water and put out the flames. He breathed a sigh of relief, nothing terrible happened, and looked at Kenma, who was hiding behind Lev.

"What the hell is this ...?"

"I don't know. What did he burn?" Lev asked, still watching Kenma, who was quiet.

"Looks like clothes- Oh," Daishou bent down and looked more closely at what was burned. "It's Yaku's pajamas..."

"Really?"

They both looked at Kenma, trying to figure out what that drug was causing.

***

"Really?!" Yaku exclaimed in disbelief. He looked at Kenma, who seemed to be cringing, afraid of Yaku's anger. That was the sensation the body showed, as Kenma still showed no expressions.

But Yaku sighed. It was strange; suddenly Kenma had changed his attitudes under that unknown drug. First he was clingy, but now…

What an antithesis drug.

"Kenma, I'm not mad at you," he said. Kenma looked at him, but then looked away. Yaku was smiling.

And that-

Suddenly, Sugawara appeared at the door, worried. Everyone looked at him, curious as why he looked so nervous.

"Hey, does anyone know where Tsukishima is…?"

***

"█████-senpai, where are we going?" █████ asked, settling into the passenger seat. "It's been two hours and you haven't told me yet…"

"I told you, we're going to look for elements of this horror story."

"That doesn't help!"

█████-senpai snorted and opened the glove compartment that had a large envelope. █████ wordlessly took the envelope and pulled out what was inside: a police report on a murder that had taken place 12 years ago.

█████ carefully read every detail.

"Hey… this- this is about that secret, the one who helped kill his father, isn't it…?" █████ asked, and from █████-senpai's smile she knew so. "But he just opened the door!"

"He opened the door for the monster to come in," █████-senpai informed. "And he feel guilty about it. Not for his father's death, but for what he almost provoked."

Hearing this, █████ searched for something in the report. She felt the color of her skin fade.

"Don't say-"

"Yes, he almost made a sacrifice because he opened the door."

She couldn't help but feel pity and pain. If it was her in his place… She would be shattered.

"So where are we going, senpai?"

"To a therapy clinic where the killer was forced to go after her release."

***

There were no signs of Tsukishima anywhere in the mansion. Quickly the conclusion was that it was he who had opened the safebox.

Sugawara looked once more at the painting. This constellation was familiar to him, but Oikawa claimed it didn't exist.

Tsukishima was able to decode and perhaps what was inside was for him. According to this reasoning, the code must have something to do with Tsukishima.

Stars… It was night, but there was no moon represented there. Sugawara remembered Tsukishima being compared to the moon, while Hinata was compared to the sun.

Ask the wolf… Oh, yes… The wolf howls at the full moon. It was another hint to discovered that was Tsukishima.

Wait ... Stars ...

Maybe that was it. Maybe that was the safebox code.

And maybe Sugawara had discovered Tsukishima's secret.

But first, he had to prove his theory. He closed the safe – the sound of the door closing attracted glances from the others. Then he put the code.

1110.

The safebox opened.

"Ah… So that was it…"

"Suga-chan, did you find the code?" Oikawa asked.

“Yes… 1110,” he replied. “Or rather, November 10th. Yamaguchi's birthday. I think the stars are his freckles...”

"I said that constellation didn't exist-"

"Shut up, Oikawa," Iwaizumi ordered and Oikawa pouted.

Sugawara didn't know what to feel; happy to know that Tsukishima had managed to get out of the mansion, or worried that he would be punished

As if the Voice were listening to him, the living room television turned on out of nowhere.

But who was on the screen wasn’t Tsukishima.

***

  
  


Daishou was slow to open his eyes. His head ached as if someone had hit him with a metal pipe.

No, wait, he was sure it was that. He had a feeling someone was in the library and went there. He thought that it could be Tsukishima.

He shouldn't have gone there alone.

Apart from the pain, his ears were hissing too. It looked like there were snakes near him.

Snakes…?

It was then that Daishou opened his eyes sharply and sat on the floor. This rapid movement, along to the fact that his head was bleeding, made him have a low tension, making him see only white and it took a while for his vision to return to normal.

And what he saw crushed his heart.

"M-Mika-chan!"

Hanging from the ceiling above a pool full of venomous snakes was Mika, unconscious. She was wearing a white dress;  _ a wedding dress _ .

Just like what she wanted for their future marriage, once they both had steady jobs.

And she was beautiful, obviously she was, but seeing her in that situation didn't make Daishou feel happy as he always imagined he would be if he saw her dressed as a bride.  _ His bride _ .

"This is the Voice," Daishou stared at the camera, ignoring the blood streaming down his face. “Daishou Suguru, the remarkable son of a couple of elite lawyers – you have a promising future, don't you? Or rather, planned and controlled.”

"You don't have to tell me that, I know that," Daishou informed. "Free Mika-chan, she has nothing to do with it!"

"Your parents don't like her, do they?" The Voice continued, ignoring Daishou. “Poor them, to see their son rebel against them, to date someone, when they already have a bride for you. But you are dancing in their palm, there's nothing you can do. ”

“You can't be thinking of-”

“Oh, of course not. I'm giving you a chance to get rid of your parents.”

Daishou felt his breath stop. What did they meant, get rid of his parents? Before he could ask, he felt an electric shock at the nape of his neck and fell to the ground, unable to move.

"W-What did you do?!"

“Oh, didn't your parents ever use this on you? What a waste, they even bothered to buy on the black market just to have you controlled...”

"Shu-shut up!"

Another shock that made Daishou scream in pain; his vision was drowning from the pain and the loss of blood.

“So, Daishou Suguru, do you want the opportunity to kill your controlling parents or would you like your Mika-chan to fall into the pool? The snakes don't usually attack, but if something falls on them, they'll feel in danger and attack your beautiful Juliet.~ What are you going to choose, O Romeo?

None of the options pleased Daishou. His parents weren't the best, but they weren't bad. Okay, they were controlling. A lot, actually. But it was because of their love for him, wasn't it?

And they were worried about him. Only that. It is obvious that they want to know where he is every second. Concern of parents. Nothing more. Totally normal.

They also shouted at him when he got something wrong in the tests. Daishou had to have perfect grades, just perfect results. In volleyball too. From an early age, they shouted at him if he lose a game, as if he wasn't frustrated with himself either. But that's because they wanted him to do his best.

They also had his life planned. They just want his best; it was a shame they didn't see how fantastic Mika was. Nothing against the girl his parents wanted him to marry, Yuri, the daughter of a very important jury. But he loved Mika.

Mika was the girl of his dreams, the princess of his eyes. His parents had let him date her as long as they broke up at the end. But he loved Mika and didn't think about that. She was the one who he will marry to.

Surely if he talked to them, they would eventually accept.

Daishou felt an electric shock at the back of his neck again. His mouth had a metal flavour and his conscience was beginning to blur. He had the feeling that the Voice ordered him to choose, faster, but he could only hear buzzes.

His parents never-

Oh dear Lord, they had completely brainwashed him, hadn't they?

It was as the Voice had said; Daishou had been dancing in their hand forever. Surely if he continued to rebel against them, that would have happened sooner or later.

Daishou grunted loudly as he began to rise. He could hear nothing but that annoying buzz.

He couldn't speak properly either. His mouth was so dry and only broken sounds came from his lips. However, he forced his body to move closer to Mika.

“I… go… ve… Mika…”

As that murmur, so broken, was enough for the Voice, a door opened. Daishou, in his maximum comprehension abilities at that moment, understood that his parents were on the other side.

His body ached so much when he moved. He felt spasms in his muscles, insistent and hard.

When he saw the gun on the floor and his parents wall mounted, shouting at him something he couldn’t hear, Daishou felt something he couldn’t decipher. It was a feeling of… superiority? Of satisfaction?

No, he couldn't be feeling that. He liked his parents- No, no, they had tortured him with that excessive control, that invisible abuse, he had to hate them- No, that wasn’t a reason for anyone to hate someone. It was just worry. They were just worried about him.

No, no, he had decided. He was going to protect Mika-chan, his Mika-chan. He wasn’t going back.

Daishou took the gun. He felt a spasm in his arm; he shivered in pain and grunted. He was surprised to feel the weight; he had never imagined such a small weapon to be so heavy. Though he never imagined touching a gun before, let alone point it at his parents.

Ah, they were screaming, but Daishou could only hear the buzzing. Maybe it was the best. With buzzing ears and blurred vision, he could pretend it was just a nightmare, not real.

He shot and failed; it hit his father's ear but didn't kill him. The father shouted and Daishou was sure he insulted him. The usual. He had to be more accurate to take less time. Yeah, dad just wants perfection. He had to be perfect. Daishou mumbled an apology, broken.

Another shot, this time in his neck. Daishou noticed in his father's horrified face, gathering his last breath before losing consciousness.

By the movements of her lips, his mother must be begging Daishou to not to kill her.

But Daishou's head hurt too much for him to think of anything but pull the trigger and shoot to his mother's heart.

When his arm relaxed, the gun fell to the floor. He noticed that his face was wet, not only from the blood that flowed from the wound, but also from tears.

The parents had the perfect death, didn't they?

He had nothing to regret, right?

Ah, Mika-chan. He had to see Mika-chan.

He went back into the other room, ignoring the growing headache and his vision getting darker.

Mika-chan was sitting in a chair, so big it looked like a throne. In addition to the dress, she was wearing the veil. Daishou smiled – a weak, tired smile. He approached her but eventually passed out on her lap.

Finally, in his Mika-chan's arms.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find the fanfic here: https://twitter.com/Sinbastiao/status/1165977087985037312
> 
> Please, feel free to send comments here or quote the tweets! Share your theories about which secret belongs to whom!


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